p. 3 | Rewards of Service by Ellen G. White

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 17, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 19.

Rewards of Service

By Ellen G. White

By Mrs. E. G. White

“WHEN thou makest a dinner or a supper,” Christ said, “call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they can not recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”

To every worker for God this thought should be a stimulus and an encouragement. In this life, our work for God often seems to be almost fruitless. Our efforts to do good may be earnest and persevering, yet we may not be permitted to witness their results. To us the effort may seem to be lost. But the Saviour assures us that our work is noted in heaven, and that the recompense can not fail. The apostle Paul, writing by the Holy Spirit, says, “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” And in the words of the psalmist we read, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

A Reward in the Doing

And while the great final reward is given at Christ’s coming, true-hearted service for God brings a reward even in this life. Obstacles, opposition, and bitter heart-breaking discouragement, the worker will have to meet. He may not see the fruit of his toil. But in face of all this he finds in his labor a blessed recompense. All who surrender themselves to God in unselfish service for humanity, are in cooperation with the Lord of glory. This thought sweetens all toil; it braces the will; it nerves the spirit for whatever may befall. Working with unselfish heart, ennobled by being partakers of Christ’s sufferings, sharing His sympathies, they help to swell the tide of His joy, and bring honor and praise to His exalted name. In fellowship with God, with Christ, and with holy angels, they are surrounded with a heavenly atmosphere, an atmosphere that brings health to the body, vigor to the intellect, and joy to the soul.

All who consecrate body, soul, and spirit to God’s service will be constantly receiving a new endowment of physical, mental, and spiritual power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit: the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind.

Many are God’s promises to those who minister to His afflicted ones. He says: “Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and Thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.” “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again.” “The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”

Ultimate Success

And while much of the fruit of their labor is not apparent in this life, God’s workers have His sure promise of ultimate success. As the world’s Redeemer, Christ was constantly confronted with apparent failure. He seemed to do little of the work which He longed to do in uplifting and saving. Satanic agencies were constantly working to obstruct His way. But He would not be discouraged. Ever before Him He saw the result of His mission. He knew that truth would finally triumph in the contest with evil, and to His disciples He said: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” The life of Christ’s disciples is to be like His, a series of uninterrupted victories, not seen to be such here, but recognized as such in the great hereafter.

Those who labor for the good of others are working in union with the heavenly angels. They have their constant companionship, their unceasing ministry. Angels of light and power are ever near, to protect, to comfort, to heal, to instruct, to inspire. The highest education, the truest culture, the most exalted service possible to human beings in this world, are theirs.

Often our merciful Father encourages His children and strengthens their faith by permitting them here to see evidence of the power of His grace upon the hearts and lives of those for whom they labor. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not

thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but . . . it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

In the transformation of character, the casting out of evil passions, the development of the sweet graces of God’s Holy Spirit, we see the fulfilment of the promise, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle.” We behold life’s desert “rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”

The Transforming Power of His Grace

Christ delights to take apparently hopeless material, those whom Satan has debased and through whom he has worked, and make them the subjects of His grace. He rejoices to deliver them from suffering, and from the wrath that is to fall upon the disobedient. He makes His children His agents in the accomplishment of this work; and in its success, even in this life, they find a precious reward.

But what is this compared with the joy that will be theirs in the great day of final reckoning? There will be a blessed commendation, a holy benediction, on the faithful winner of souls; for they will join the rejoicing ones in heaven, who shout the harvest home. How great will be the joy when the redeemed shall all meet, gathered into the mansions prepared for them that love Him! What rejoicing for all who have been impartial, unselfish laborers together with God in winning souls to Christ! What satisfaction will every reaper have when the clear, musical voice of Jesus shall be heard saying, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

The Redeemer is glorified because He has not died in vain. Those who have been laborers together with God, see, as does Christ, the travail of their souls for perishing, dying sinners, and they are satisfied. The anxious hours they have spent, the perplexing circumstances they have had to meet, the sorrow of heart because some refuse to see and to receive the things that make for their peace,—all are forgotten. As they look upon the souls they sought to win to Christ, and see them saved, eternally saved, monuments of God’s mercy and of a Redeemer’s love, there ring through the arches of heaven shouts of praise and thanksgiving.

“And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests. . . . Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”

“They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”