Glorious Return

This morning in the quiet hours before the rest of my little world ventured out of bedroom doors I was able to read and pray without interruption for a while. It is never easy to leave the comfort of my quilts and curl up in the darkness of the living room, but I always look back with gratification when I am willing to endure an early morning.

Sometimes in prayer my mind searches for just the right words, other times the Holy Spirit just flows and I am blessed to mouth His heart for my family and friends as I mention their names to the Father. This morning it was Him that uttered these words for my husband.

“Let this day be a day of glorious return.”

I stopped praying for a moment to let that sink in. Kris loves the idea of investment. Sowing and reaping is a principle that the Bible teaches and applies to EVERYTHING in life. We aren’t just givers in the Kingdom of God…we INVEST in it. Looking for a return on that investment is not a longing for an unsuspected check in the mail from a long lost aunt Frieda who is gifting away her inheritance before she dies. NO! It’s a confidence in our lives being spent as efficiently as possible, believing that every moment we work “as unto the Lord,” and every word we speak that doesn’t “fall to the ground,” every dime we spend that goes even to “the least of these,” is a living and increasing investment into the challenge set by Christ that we would do “greater things than these.”

Those two little words have rung in my heart today over and over as I have gone about my day. I prayed for my washing machine to work right, I had a repair man come out and tell me she’s on her last leg and not worth fixing. I’ve been thinking about her replacement but as I loaded another load as evenly as possible into her wobbly tub today I heard those words again and instead of a good replacement, I prayed for a glorious return on the faithful work I have done around the house and the labor of my husband whose income we strive to spend wisely.

I got a facebook message from a friend struggling with her health and I asked God for a glorious return on the many hours of prayer she has invested for others. I have seen the fruit of her prayer life and it does not come from flippant requests tossed in wishful sprays over her shoulder. I know there is a return beyond just the answers to her prayers, there is a return that overflows into her own life and continues to embolden her future requests as she sees God at work.

I know that He has a return on the investments we make in Him. I know that He sees it all, that the widows mite is not lost, that the gentle touch to the hem of His garment is deeply felt and that the thirst of each of us who come to the well will be satisfied with living water we cannot begin to contain.

We are not unnoticed in a big world, on the contrary, we are the creation so adored by our maker, so miraculously restored by Him that He cannot take His eyes off of us. We have become the glorious return for such a Father as this: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16…I am forever moved by this.