Rabbi Schneider - The Greatest and Best Reward Can be Yours
All right, beloved one, I've got another fantastic scripture for you today, from the word of God. Hebrews chapter 11:6, "The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord remains forever". Now, really hear this because these words that we're bringing, I mean, these are living words. The word of God is living and active. Listen to what the author of Hebrews writes, "without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God, must first of all, believe that he exists". I mean, you're not gonna come to God. You're not gonna pray to him unless you believe in him.
So the author says without faith, it's impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is. And that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. So the point is, is that when we believe that God is so present, that he's right here, that he's the God of the now and that he rewards those that seek him, that he answers those that call out to him, that if you ask, you'll receive, that if you knock, he's gonna open doors, that if you and I draw near to him, he'll draw near to us. If we really believe all this, that he's a present God, and that he's gonna reward us for seeking him, we're gonna seek him.
So without faith, it's impossible to please him. And not only to believe that he is, but also to know that he's a rewarder of those that seek him. What's the reward? First of all, Jesus said, "this is eternal life that you would know God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent". The greatest reward of all is to have our soul satisfied by truly knowing who God is. I'm talking about, not in our head, I'm talking about. We come to a place in our life where, because we've saught God, he has drawn near to us cause he draws near to those that draw near to him. And as a result of him drawing near to us, there's a satisfaction that comes into our soul and inner peace. Like the peace that a child has, that we feel embraced, that we feel loved, that we feel safe and that we have a good, self-identity a good self image in him because we know that we're loved.
We feel loved by him. The world may reject us. Your mom and dad may have rejected you. You might be rejected by some of your fellow employees or your employer, and that can hurt your self esteem. But when God is the most important person in your life and you feel loved by him, I mean, he's, this is not something that we're talking about that's just a concept that's far away. I'm talking about, you've literally been brought into a reality where you're experiencing God's presence in your life in a tangible way. And you feel affirmed by him. And this weight of his glory is resting on you in such a way that it overpowers everything else in your life. That is the reward that's greater than everything else.
So we believe that he is, and that he's a rewarder of those that seek him. Let's seek him and let's seek him for the greatest thing of all, to know him, to know who he is and to know who we are to him. Because in that beloved is divine satisfaction and once we've got that, no one can ever take it away from us. We'll have found the key and we'll have the answer.