GIFT OR REWARD?

 

These two words mean the same thing but a thin line separates them and qualifies each one for what it really is. Gift is a noun, Reward is a verb; circumstances makes what is given either a reward or a gift or both.

A gift may be defined as something given to someone on a special occasion which may not necessarily be given because of a deed done. Gift bestowed is not determined by you but by the magnanimity and the prosperous leverage of the giver; and this comes in different levels. Now because of this sometimes a gift may seem undeserving; but the clincher here is that though the gift may seem undeserving to you, the recipient; but to the giver it may be deserving; or such may be found needful for you to have to enable you do something. Grace (charisma); and the innate latent gifts you were born with falls under this category.

Reward is defined as something given in appreciation for a deed done. Reward is earned, it is something deserving for faithful service or obedience. This means there is a doing, a conscious effort exerted at something. This may sometimes be given not because you have done something but because someone whom you’re connected to had done something in the past which the giver may now use a special occasion as an opportunity to pay back. To the giver it is both a gift and a reward, while to the recipient it is a gift.

This explains John 4:38; “I sent you to reap that for which you have not laboured, others have laboured and you have entered into their rest.” And also explains Isaiah 55:1; “Ho everyone who thirsts come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat, yes come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”  And also Deuteronomy 6:10-11; “So it shall be when the LORD your God……which you did not build….which you did not fill….which you did not dig….which you did not plant…”

Isn’t this the case of a good man leaving an inheritance for his children’s children? Please know this today, to God no good thing comes free and no good deed goes unrewarded; there’s always a price to pay, a cost to bear. God will never deny anyone his reward; He has not called you to serve Him in vain. What make God’s reward seem undeserving is the miraculous way and the quantum which such comes; then you begin to think in your mind that it is a gift, not a reward.

There is remuneration for service and a time of harvest for seeds planted. The intriguing thing about God‘s reward is its timing, the manner, and the magnitude. It may take its time in coming, but the moment it comes, it’s always mind-boggling.  When it comes, receive it with thanksgiving, enjoy it, show-off with it, but don’t get lost in it. “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth…” Mind you, His mind-boggling gift is not for frivolities, which is tantamount to waste, it is another bountiful seed for the extension of your service field and for the extension of His kingdom; His investment for the further establishment of the Kingdom.

Thot 4u:

Would God give man a gift or reward he doesn’t deserve?

Is His reward or gift given to man because of who He is and not because of what man has done?

Is man deserving of a gift or reward from God just because he is man made in the image of God?