A Rewarding God
While reading about the well-to-do Shunammite woman, I was struck by something quite uncommon in this story. A miracle happens against her will. She blatantly refused to participate but it happened anyway. Why? Because God doesn’t need your (or anyone else’s) permission to reward you. Hebrews 11:6 teaches us that God is a rewarder. God recognizes efforts made in faith and He recompensates them. He does not ignore when one has done something deserving of a reward, nor does he forget. We see this in the story of the rich young man in Mark 10. After he leaves with his face downcast as he cannot accept the cost of following Jesus, Peter exclaims that they have left everything to follow him. Because this is an action of great faith, Jesus tells him about the reward that awaits them. “I tell you the truth,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much i