For Your Work Shall Be Rewarded

At the beginning of 1 Chronicles 14, the king of Judah died, and his son Asa became king in his place. Asa, we’re told, “did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” (1 Chronicles 14:2). He tore down altars that had been built to false gods and he commanded the people of Judah to worship the one true God. When he went out to battle against the enemies of Judah, he prayed for God’s help – and he won a great victory.

In 1 Chronicles 15, we read that “the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, ‘Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law. But when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.” Azariah reminds the people that before they turned back to the Lord, they had no peace. But now that they have turned back to God, he tells them, “But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”

In order to have victory against their enemies, and peace in their land, the Israelites had to do the hard work of rooting out all the false gods and false worship from their land. They had to turn back to the God who was truly on their side. Not until after they had done this did God send a prophet to tell them, “Your work shall be rewarded.”

Sometimes we want the reward before the work. We want to have the thing in our hands before we’re willing to pay for it. Unfortunately, not many things work that way. For most things, the work comes first. It came that way for the people of Judah – they had to put in the work of turning back to God before they were promised a reward. It works that way in sports, too: you have to put in the work first, then you get the reward. Your life doesn’t change until you start doing the work of changing your life.

Notice too that in this case they had a leader, Asa, who began the work, and then the people joined him. Asa by himself was not enough. In sports, that same way, you can have a leader for your team – a coach or an outstanding player – who’s putting in the work, but only when the whole team is putting in the work are you really going to start seeing the reward as a team.

What is it that you want to change in your life? Like Asa, all you can do is begin to make the changes yourself. Maybe the people will join you—the people in your family, the people at your church, the other players on your team, your co-workers—and your reward will be the greater. But even if no one joins you, your work will be rewarded, if you do not grow weary and quit.

Whether it’s in faith or in sports or in anything you do, remember: first you do the work, then you begin to see the reward. And in a group, unless everybody’s putting in the work, it’s unlikely that everybody will see the reward.