Waste Not, Want Now

*In TV announcer voice* Has this ever happened to you? You go to work. You come home to check your bank account and... NO ONE put any money in your account!  How can this be? You just put in your 9 to 5. Doesn't the boss understand the concept of instant gratification?!

And about this time they run an ad for a some make money at home scam.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind getting paid everyday. I was blessed to have a job that I got paid every week, but still it would be nice have the money instantly. It's not like I would spend it right away, but there's something comforting about it. Like someone still knows and cares that you totally just killed yourself for the benefit of the company.

Then again getting paid immediately is often accompanied with a nice little piece of pink paper...

Sometimes our Christian life feels the same way... There are days when I'm so tired of doing the right thing. Now I don't mean doing the right thing for the wrong reason... just consistently serving God.  Just plain old spiritual burnout.  I want my reward now!  Why can't God give us some little nod or like some token of acknowledgement like an extra hundred bucks or something.

Why, when I witness to someone, why don't they get saved when I'm talking to them?  Why does that loved one still reject Him after I've prayed for them for years?

Does anyone care that I'm here in the back corner of the church washing windows?

Maybe we don't really mean it when we say we want to be rewarded now, but some days it would be nice to have just one person say thank you.

But, even though no one else notices, God truly does. And I think He knew how easy it is to burn out, because there's quite a few verses talking about it:

(1 Corinthians 15:58) ...Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
(2 Thessalonians 3:13) But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
(Galatians 6:9) And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 

And there are more. God has promised in Galatians 6 that we will reap what we sow, but, as with plants, we don't reap the fruits of our labor until after we have put a whole lot of work and patience into it.

So, even though our rewards are not meted out fast food style, God's pretty good at keeping an accurate record of what we are doing.

Because of Him,
Missa