Rewards Those Who Seek Him

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

What comes to your mind when you think of believing that God is a rewarder of those who seek him? One way to think about this is that it will be good for me and my life if I obey the Lord and seek to do his will because he will reward me with good things. It pays to seek the Lord. This attitude will be a motivator for me to seek him.

This could then be applied to your work. You should seek the Lord in your work because he will reward you. I could use that to motivate you to engage with Leavened Lives. Do you believe that God will reward you if you seek him? Then put in the time and effort with me and let’s see how he rewards you.

This view ties the idea of rewards to something that is desirable, and it ties the idea of seeking to obedience or service to the Lord. But there is another way to read this passage. Seeking is not service or obedience unto the Lord, it is seeking after the Lord himself. Then the reward would be finding him. That is the way I read this passage, especially for the ministry of Leavened Lives.

The goal is to draw near to God at your work, which is pleasing to him. To do that, you need to have a faith that believes God is there at your work and that if you intentionally seek him, you will find him. And the word that is translated seek is a strong word that implies effort and perseverance. It promises that God will enable you to find him, but it implies that this will not be easily attained. That is why you need to have faith. Faith that is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

This is an assurance that is not based on what we are able to perceive because it is the conviction of things not seen. We do not need to see God at our place of work in order to have faith that he is there. And if it is difficult for us to find him, we do not give up because we are sure of what we hope for, which is to find him. Here is a link to a pastoral letter excerpt that talks more about faith in Hebrews 11:1. The faith that we need in order to draw near to him.

The next post will be exploring what we think that we are seeking when we seek God at our work. What are our expectations of what he promises to provide?