For 2020, I have chosen Isiah 41:10 as my personal verse. This lead into a theme for this year’s His Encouragement posts. Each week, I will be looking at another “fear not” of the Bible. I hope that as we journey together through these verses that we all will learn a little more about trusting God and rooting out the fear in our lives.

After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

Genesis 15:1 KJV

I woke up this morning meditating on this verse. I wanted to know how this could apply to me and to others. The first thing I did was looked up the word, reward, in the concordance. It means “wages.” Next, I like to look at the before and after verses to see how the verse fits in the context. Now, this verse is the first one in chapter 15 of Genesis, so I had to go back to chapter 14 to see what came before.

And this was when my eyes were opened and my heart blessed. The event that takes place in chapter 14 is when all the people and goods of Sodom and Gomorrah including Lot, Abraham’s family. was captured by some enemy kings. Abraham and his servants went on a rescue mission and brought them all back. As a reward, the king of Sodom offers Abraham all the goods of the city. Obviously, a massive wealth.

And Abraham turns it all down. He says, “I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich”.

The very next thing that happens after Abraham turns down the reward that the world had to offer, God comes to him and says, “Fear not. I am thy exceeding great reward!!” (emphasis added)

He is our reward when we turn away from all the glitter and glam the world holds out to us, and instead chose to live a life that pleases Him! We don’t need to fear because He is far better than anything this world has to offer. We aren’t missing out by living a godly life, our reward is God himself!

Many people won’t understand. They’ll think something is wrong with us, or that we’re crazy. They may call us hypocrites, or legalistic, or fools. It reminds me of another verse where this “great reward” is mentioned. Matthew 5:12 says, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

People won’t understand when you choose to live a holy and separated life. They don’t understand when you chose godliness over fame, fortune, or power. They make fun of you and or shake their heads at you. I’m sure the king of Sodom thought Abraham was a fool to turn down all that wealth, but Abraham’s decision to honor God brought him blessings beyond measure… just keep reading the rest of chapter 15.

… It was counted unto him for righteousness.

HE IS MY EXCEEDING GREAT REWARD.

What scripture is encouraging you today? Share it with us!

Check out these other blogs for more encouragement from God’s word for your Thursday.

Nicole @ Christian Fiction Girl

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective 

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Becca @ The Becca Files

Jenny @ Author Jenny Lynn

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes

Andi @ Radiant Light

Leslie @ Edits & Reviews by Leslie