We thank you, O God, Sovereign-Strong, Who Is and Who Was. You took your great power and took over - reigned! The angry nations now get a taste of your anger. The time has come to judge the dead, to reward your servants, all prophets and saints, Reward small and great who fear your Name, and destroy the destroyers of earth. (v. 17-18)"The time has come." There are many time references in the book of Revelation, describing the fullness of time, and now the coming of the "Kingdom of our God and his Messiah." In these verses, we, His servants, are also mentioned - the time has come to reward.
I love rewards, awards, recognition, appreciation of (almost) any kind. In fact, for most of my life, I've believed that the rewards promised in the Bible are to be received in the here and now. I've heard teaching and taught on the rewards that will be ours if we endure, suffer, and obey - all with an underlying assumption that we would experience the rewards in this earthly life. How disappointing when the supposed reward or recognition does not show up as we thought it should. Or, when we are left with dissatisfaction instead of the satisfaction that we thought our goodness and obedience would coax out of God.
Through reading the Bible these past two years, it has become clear that the better life is not now, it is to come. We have "foretastes of glory divine" in relationships, in beauty, in earthly abundance. We have the Holy Spirit living within us - an unbelievable gift! But, the real reward has yet to come.
"...the happiness that God gives in this life (not the next) is discovered when we feel and embrace the profound disappointment that comes from living in a world that cannot satisfy our deepest desire and when we face and confess our entitled demand that we experience complete satisfaction now." (66LL)The reward is sure and it will be beyond anything we can dream or imagine. But, we will continue to ache for it in this life. It is coming.
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