For those of you who are unfamiliar with Carolyn McCulley, this is from her blog. She’s a single lady at our church who also works for Sovereign Grace Ministries.  She’s one of the people we met on our exploratory trip to CLC in June of ‘03.   You will always be freshly inspired by her blog (even if you ain’t single!)  Enjoy!!

Solo Femininity
Faith That Is Rewarded

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Yesterday at church, C.J. Mahaney showed us all an original handwritten note from C.H. Spurgeon that he had received as a gift. Later, in the lobby, I saw a cluster of people admiring it so I joined the group to see C.J.’s treasure up close. It was meaningful to me to see it because I’ve been reading through one of Spurgeon’s books, a book so convicting that it feels like it was penned just for me.

Here, for your encouragement, is one gem from this book that I’ve been mulling over lately:

We must believe that “he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” How do we seek Him? We seek Him when we begin by prayer, by trusting in Jesus, and by calling upon the sacred name…The person with whom God is pleased is pleased with God. He sets the Lord always before him and seeks to live for Him. And this is done on the basis that God will reward him in doing so. We are sure that somehow or other it will be to our highest benefit to honor the Lord and trust in Him. While we deserve nothing at His hands but wrath, yet we perceive in the gospel that if we seek Him through His Son, we shall be so well pleasing to Him as to get a reward from His hands. This must of free, sovereign grace. And what a reward it is!…

Be certain that to serve God is in itself gain. It is wealth to be holy. It is happiness to be pleasing to God. To us it is life to live to God–to know Him, to adore Him, to commune with Him, to become like Him. It is glory for us to make Him glorious among the sons of men. God is our shield and our exceeding great reward. We cannot conceive that the heavenly Father looks with displeasure upon a man struggling against sin, battling evil, enduring sorrow contentedly through a simply faith, and laboring daily to draw nearer and nearer to HIm. God is pleased with those who by faith live to please Him and are content to take their reward from His hand. He must be pleased with the work of His own grace. The desire to come to God, the way to come, the power to come, and the actual coming to God are all gifts fo sovereign grace. Coming to God, however feeble and however much else we miss, must be well pleasing in His sight. For it is the result of His own purpose and grace that He gave us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

This excerpt is taken from The Triumph of Faith in a Believer’s Life by C.H. Spurgeon
Posted by Carolyn McCulley in Christian Growth