“Do not
be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
Abram
was a different man. He had just returned from war and knew how tenuous life
could be. If he was like us he would have been asking himself “could I do
that again?”
Well,
of Course…if God asked him to. But…godly believers fall in battle the same way
heathens do.
This is
a pretty amazing promise. God didn’t say “I will provide you a shield…he
said I am your shield“. Think about this.
Anyplace Abram went…God went. If God “IS” his shield Abram never
needed to prepare…and, of course, he died at a ripe old age. We would all
like to be Abram but we aren’t. Although it seems biblical to pray that God
would be the same for as as He was for Abram, for some reason
God allows some of us to fall in battle. I don’t know why. I can count at least
five times that God truly was my shield during my days in combat. That was the
only explanation for my survival. But my best friend…got to heaven before he
ever got home to Georgia.
We
dwell on this too much. The really great part of God’s promise to Abram was “I will
be your great reward”. This is the part of the promise that
really gets my attention. Many combat veterans wish they would have perished in
battle. For many dying is the easy part. It’s the ultimate devotion to duty and
they live forever in the hearts of their countrymen. I actually hear this
sentiment a lot from old, tired veterans who aren’t too enamored with how their
lives turned out since their military days. For them a shield may not be
that important. Same for believers in spiritual battle. Many of
us wouldn’t mind dying in service to our Lord.
But…the
promise of reward is the payoff. If God”IS” our reward, once we leave this life
we are united with Him. So, this is the question: I know we would like to have
both the shield and the reward but…if we had to choose just one, which would
you choose? And really…compared to the adulation of a grateful nation…living in
the presence of God is a reward beyond comprehension.
Who
knows what God will call us to?
Live
boldly out there today…
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