“When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Matthew 6:6
The greatest gift to mankind by God was not the perfect beauty of the Garden of Eden. It was that gift of His only begotten Son, who after the fall of man, came into this world at the perfect time in the economy of God, to accomplish a perfect work on Calvary, so that man might know God. This indescribable gift, this measureless provision for the sins of man to forgive and cleanse man from sin, and deliver him from the tyranny of sin’s law in him, was given not only to make a way to God, that he be reconciled or made just with God, but that man might know the very life of God in Christ, by the Spirit. The Bible, or the word of God is a book of Life, not only by its declaration and revelation of what this Life is, but the unveiling of the very means provided by God in Christ to KNOW this life, the indwelling life of Christ. So that, when we consider the subject of the “reward” of God to men, we come to that great, and good news, that man can know God, His blessed life, and show forth the very fruits of it. So, why consider this matter as being one of reward, rather than taking the gift by faith, and living by it?
First of all, it must be understood clearly that in speaking of “reward,” we are NOT speaking of something that man does to add to the finished work of Christ. The Gift is a perfect one and cannot be improved upon, only accepted and embraced by the grace of God when one repents of one’s sins, turning to Christ alone for salvation, surrendering all to Him. The matter of “reward” arises when, in the consideration of “so great salvation” in Christ, and the indescribable riches found and revealed in Him, the believer is faced with God’s means of knowing God. The Apostle Paul gives us some indication of this when he wrote, “…but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” (Phil. 3:12) The believer is placed into living union with Jesus Christ by the Father, working by the Spirit, at the moment of one’s conversion. All is in Christ for the believer to begin to know, but how much of that fulness will only be known by one’s appropriation of Christ by faith. It is as the believer partakes of the living bread, and drinks of the living water of Christ Himself, that the objective truth of Christ becomes the experience of His life.
In the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament, we find this most pivotal declaration: “…for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (11:6) We find here that God is a “rewarder” of those who first seek Him, but also those who live in the perspective of God revealing Himself to them as a reward of their seeking. In Jesus’ words on prayer in the gospels, we discover the same thing. It is as the individual believer comes aside to a quiet place of solitude, having shut the door to one’s room, and prays to the Father “in secret,” that the promise is realized: “…and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Simply put, those who truly, and honestly seek the Lord, His way, will be rewarded in their seeking. Jesus, in John’s gospel, revealed this when He said: “And he who loves Me will be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and manifest Myself to him.” (14:21) The great reward by God to the seeking believer, is the revelation of Christ to his own heart, that coming to KNOW Christ’s life today.
Dear Father, Give us seeking hearts. In Jesus’ name, Amen.