God sees you
I’ve been having a bit of a pity party for myself over the last year.
It’s humbling and embarrassing to share this with you, but I’m sharing because I figure I’m not the only one who has struggled with feeling unseen.
Hebrews 6:10 has been an encouragement recently,
“For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.”
This verse was brought to my attention during a sermon at my church by pastor Jon Watson. Much of what I’m sharing today is just my musings on Jon’s preaching. You can catch the full sermon here if you’d like. It’s fantastic.
“Unjust” is a striking word in this verse.
It would seem that God considers it _unjust_ for good works to go unseen, unrecognized, and unappreciated.
This tracks with our discouragement at feeling unseen. There is something right about longing to be noticed in our good efforts. And there’s something wrong in good work being overlooked.
But there are many parts of the Bible that warn us against seeking the applause and glory of men.
Here’s one from Jesus Himself,
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your righthand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:1-4
We rightly long for the smile of God. We long for the glory that only God can give.
One of the dangers of living for the applause of men is that we might settle for a lesser, flimsy, unsubstantial glory.
But it’s easier get the applause of men. After all, they don’t really _know_ me. I can parade around my good works and keep my evil thoughts and actions hidden.
But God knows.
And some part of me instinctually knows that there isn’t a single good work I’ve done that would put Him in a position to owe me anything.
At our church we often hear some version of the following. “If sin was the color blue, everything we do has some tint of blue.”
I feel the truth of this more and more.
What truly good works of mine are there for God to applaud? He knows how consistently blue I am.
It’s unjust for God to overlook our good works done under the blood of blueless Christ, not on the basis of fairness, but on the basis of love.
In the sermon, Jon shared a beautiful example of two people making eggs.
If you were to find eggshells in your eggs at the restaurant, you wouldn’t reward or applaud the cook and you would be right not to do so.
But if your young child made you eggs on their own you would likely smile, applaud, hug, and cheer…and you would be right to do so.
It’s unthinkable to God for Him not to reward us for our imperfect good works because He loves us. He is eager to encourage us as He delights in good works.
To be honest, I don’t know what it means for God to reward us.
What I do know is that the rewards promised to us in the Bible say this to us: God sees you.
If you’ve ever thought, “I wish someone would see how hard I’ve worked in that” then I’m hoping that this bit of musing encourages your heart today.
We are encouraged throughout scripture to look to God and trust that He will give us the good and right reward that our hearts long for. With Him, we will not feel overlooked.
