God Has Something Better

Photo credit: Facebook/Unknown

In the picture above, Jesus is asking the little girl to give Him her precious teddy bear. She can’t see that He won’t take it from her without giving her something in return. She can’t see that He has something better to give her if she gives up what she’s holding onto. 

Jesus offers us the same kind of exchange. If we give up our self-centered, sinful ways and follow His Way, and if we set aside our will to do His will, He’ll bless us with something immeasurably better: His immense joy and deep, lasting peace. 

We mistakenly think that having everything we want to have and doing whatever we want to do will bring us the joy we intrinsically long for. But Christ tells us to ‘seek first (the Father’s) kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you’ (Matthew 6:33). In our narrow minds we think, ‘I want to do things my way. How can denying myself make me happy?’ But God promises that when we give up our self-serving, worldly ways and seek first His Way, we’ll be rewarded with more than we could ever imagine. 

When we pursue what we want even when we know it goes against His will, we block our hearts from receiving His many gifts. When we insist on doing things our own way, the happiness we find is hollow and fleeting. Proof of this is that we’re not satisfied; we keep pursuing the next ‘better’ thing. 

However, when we give up our will for His, God rewards us greatly with everything good He desires to give us, including His love, grace, patience, strength, and wisdom. When we give up our selfish ways and seek what He wants for us, we end up finding what we were seeking all along: We find not just happiness but His deep joy and His lasting peace, which we cannot obtain through worldly pleasures. For He says, ‘Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you’ (John 14:27).

What God wants for us is always life-giving. Like the little girl in the drawing, though, we can’t always see what He has in store for us. We might not understand how following His Way can make us happy. We may be afraid of losing more than we’ll gain. But when we trust Him enough to give up what we want in favor of what He wants, we receive from Him all He desires to give us, plus the profound joy and peace we’re longing for. 

When we give up what we want and accept what He offers us, we receive what we wanted – and much, much more.

“Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” – Matthew 10:39  

Let everything I do be with You, for You, and because of You.

Thank you for reading my reflection.  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words!    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

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P.S.

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Rewards Now, Rewards Later

Imagine telling a first-grader, “Listen to your teachers and do your homework, and when you grow up you’ll be able to get a good job.” 

Of course we don’t say that. Being a grown-up is so far away; getting a good job can’t be the child’s primary goal. He has to experience the joy of learning and the satisfaction of reaching smaller goals first. So throughout his school years, we let him experience those with each little accomplishment. Only after many years of schooling can he be guided toward using his God-given talents for a particular field of work. 

In last week’s reflection I cited Matthew 7:13-14: “...How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life…” I pointed out that Christ promises that following His Way is the way to eternal life. A couple of people asked: Is our primary goal getting to heaven? Don’t we get rewarded here, too? Isn’t there value in imitating Christ simply because doing so makes our life and our world better?

Yes, we do get rewarded now. God designed us to get a good feeling when we show love to others, whether it’s by giving a special gift, sharing our time, offering a random act of kindness or kind word, or doing any other kind deed. These actions also strengthen our relationships and make our world better. Like the student who experiences rewards for working hard, so do we experience rewards for imitating Christ throughout our life. 

We’ll get rewarded later, too. We look ahead to Christ’s promise of unending joy with Him in eternal life. Most of us are familiar with this verse:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

Most of us consider eternal life as life with God in heaven. We know that God is love, so maybe heaven is less of a location and more of a state of being. When we love others through our words and actions, we’re showing God to them. We’re bringing heaven to them. We’re bringing heaven to earth. Christ offers us life after we pass away, and also makes it possible that our life here on earth could be full of His love, His peace, and His joy: 

“I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10

So, yes, our rewards come both now and later. Think of it this way: Loving in this life is kind of like practice for eternity. Our thoughts, words, and actions become who we are. When we’re absorbed in loving others, when our thoughts, words, and actions are rooted in Love, then we experience heaven here and now. We then take who we are with us and continue to be absorbed by Love for eternity.

“Lord, let me grasp every opportunity to bring heaven to earth.”

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2023 Gina Bedell     Comments are always welcome! 

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p.s.

We continue to pray for an end to the war. If you’d like to help the people of Ukraine through the Cleveland Maidan Association, you may use either PayPal or a credit/debit card here:

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