What wasn't so subtle was the implication that you can stand back and pretty much gauge a person's faithfulness according to that person's material rewards and financial success.
In other words, I was told, it's obvious that God rewards faithful followers ... and makes their righteousness publicly apparent ... through the bountiful compensation of material success and achievement.
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I don't believe that, not for one minute.
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As believers, God's promised us eternal life, so why do we end up expecting ... no, demanding more?
Do we really have any right to expect perfect health, a wonderful romantic relationship, financial success, on top of praise and adoration from our peers ... after accepting Christ as our savior and surrending ourselves to him?
Wouldn't you think that salvation from eternal damnation is already infinitely more than we deserve? Doesn't that already seem like more than enough?
Or how about a side order of fries, a discounted mortgage and a shoe shine, too?
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When people are praying, I wonder how much time they spend talking and how much time they spend listening.
I wonder how much time is spent asking God for favors (or asking him to save us from a crisis of ourr own creation), and how much time is spent repenting, and asking God for his forgiveness.
How much prayer time is spent asking him to do whatever it takes to rend and extirpate the sin from our lives ... no matter how painful that process might be ... and how much time is spent asking God to bend his word so we can have our own way?
Or how much time is devoted to thanking him for Christ's sacrifice on the cross and praising for what he's already done on our behalf, without us even knowing about it, without us even having to ask?
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Grace is God's gift, and Salvation means that we're saved from what we deserve and is God's promise to us of eternal life. Christ's sacrifice on the cross does not mean that we're promised everything we feel we deserve in this life.
And neither should we act or behave as if we've done anything to merit or deserve what God has mercifully chosen to give us.
