To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 2:19 “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?”

A friend of mine died the other day. Ralph was a believer. He was kind.  He had a gentle manner that was an example I looked up to.  Ralph had a wonderful family, a testimony to the influence of his godly life.  And he was a fisherman, someone that I could easily connect with as we shared our love of this wonderful hobby. But more than this, he was a fisher of men, and because of that, Ralph profoundly and eternally affected my life.

You see, approximately 50 years ago Ralph and his wife Donna were born again.  It was soon thereafter that they had the boldness to share the gospel with the woman who is now my wife.  I’ve heard her tell this story to many people over the years.  In it, she mentions how, as soon as she heard the message, her eyes were wonderfully opened, and she believed. As a result, soon thereafter, her daughter believed. Later, I married this woman. The fact that I saw Christ in her was one of the reasons I loved her and was drawn to her.  Then we had children who also believed, largely as the result of her influence in their lives.  And in all of this, and in all of the influence that anyone in our family has had on others for Christ, Ralph and Donna have had a part. Their faithfulness to share the gospel with my wife so many years ago has laid down ripples to which only eternity will attest.

The Bible speaks of heavenly rewards that are coming to those who have glorified God with their lives (Matthew 6:1, 6; Mark 9:41; Luke 6:23). In some places this is likened to gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Corinthians 3:12); elsewhere to crowns (1 Peter 5:4; Revelation 3:11; 4:10).  In the passage above we have mention of one such crown. And what is this? What is the crown to which the apostle Paul refers? It’s the believers in the church at Thessalonica.  And with this reference, we see a key to heavenly rewards.

You see, often, as we live our life and do those things which glorify God, we don’t see any results. We pray. We give. We share the gospel.  We love with our words and actions.  But how often do we have any idea of what God does with these things?  In Hebrews 11:6 we are told that “whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”  And Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, spoke of how our Father in heaven will openly reward those who practice their righteousness “in secret,” i.e., not to put on a show for others but in simple obedience to what God has said, be it in prayer, giving, or in anything else.  Sometimes those rewards are experienced on earth, but ultimately those rewards will be experienced in heaven.  It is only then that the ripple effects of the words spoken, gifts given, help provided, and prayers offered will be fully revealed.  And what a more glorious reward than to know of the lives that have been thus affected.

1 Corinthians 13:12 is a wonderful verse that speaks to all this: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  Well, “then” is “now” for my friend Ralph.  The ripples of his faithfulness are, at long last, being made known to him. And may Ralph’s wonderful faithfulness be a testimony to the rest of us. May the Lord help us to love others as my friend Ralph did.