Eternal Rewards

2 Tim 4:8 finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing

Eph 6: 5-8 Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don't just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ's servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you're really serving God. Good work will get you good pay from the Master, regardless of whether you are slave or free. (The Message)

Once there was this man who had a dream in his sleep. In his dream, Jesus was standing in front of him. Lo and behold, down at his feet was his life time work for the Lord. And suddenly a fire came from the LORD and burned everything on his feet. The fire was to test his work whether it would last or not. And to his great surprise everything was burnt up and nothing remained.

One day every believer will stand before the LORD to give an account on how he or she had lived and used whatever talents given to him or her. The bible teaches that Jesus is a very conscientious business owner. He is our Savior, Master, God and He is also our Boss. He owns everything we have and He expects a good return for every investment or opportunity given to us. Remember the parable of the talents. The Master expects a return from his servants with what was entrusted to them. The lazy servant was rebuked for not doing anything with what was given to him.

My boss is very particular about the bottom line with every business deal. He would ask us about the profit margin and as much we try to convince him to be more realistic in expecting profits, he still insist on making a reasonable gain. Business is all about returns and profits. There is no play play here.

Similarly, I believe Jesus is really serious on how we use His resources. He expects a return from what is entrusted to us. Though He loves us dearly, He views with great concern on our stewardship with what is His. And He doesn’t want us to be wasting away with His goods. And in return for our faithful service, Jesus blesses us with eternal rewards and a place of authority in the afterlife which is far more glorious that we could ever imagine. So we must be busy about God’s business.

As much we want to please God with our stewardship, there are rules that we must work on in order to earn eternal rewards.  God doesn’t see things the way we see. He is not impressed with merely the outward results. A person may have done alot just like the man who had the dream but not gain much reward at all. On the other hand a person may not have done much in the eyes of man but with a right attitude and diligence he or she is greatly rewarded by the LORD.

Firstly, God looks into our hearts first before He looks at our work. What motivates us to do something for Him? Is it because we love Him and people? Or is it for our personal pride, fame, enrichment and selfish gain? In 1Cor 13 the greatest motivation for service is love. Without love, our work is counted as useless, meaningless, nothing.

I remember when I was a young Christian, I wanted to tell everyone that I have done good for a Christian brother. I wanted to share in the church service about this thing that I did for him and be proud of it. As I was about to do so, I felt an uncomfortable feeling in my chest telling me not to go out. I do not understand what this is but I decided not to go out anyway. Later I understood this is the Holy Spirit rebuking me for doing something because I wanted to be famous. Before this, I never know God can be so real and this is my first experience of God working in my life. I wanted to encourage people to do good but my motive was wrong. So God stopped me from embarrassment and making a fool of myself. Doing a good work can be wrong if our motives are not love. So let us be motivated with God’s love when we serve Him and not other reasons.

Secondly, God only pays what He orders. Don’t do anything because it is a popular thing to do. But find out what is your God ordained place in ministry or work and remain faithful in it.

Everyone is called to fulfill the Great Commission and heal the sick. It is non negotiable. My wife Lois, is called to be a pastor. She should remain functioning as a pastor. Some are called into the full time ministry and some are not. God may call some to be in the limelight and some behind the scene. It doesn’t matter what you do for the LORD, as long God calls you into it. Don’t do anything which God didn’t call you into. It can be a struggle to keep up. Moreover, He will only reward you for what He calls you into.

Thirdly, God rewards faithfulness. To be faithful means that you will use your gifts responsibly. Some people are talented with computers but they use it to hack into people's bank account and that is not using your gifts responsibly. All gifts come from God and we are just stewards to use them to do good and be a blessing to others. Of course your gift will provide for you, you get a good pay for a job well done but never use it to break the law, selfish reasons or bring dishonour to God.

To be faithful also means spending effort and time to use and develop your gifting. Some people may have talents but they do not use or develop them. There are people who are lazy and refuse to spend time to brush up their skills. They use their time to do other things which are not beneficial to their gifting and talents. The servant with the one talent should have spent time to do business with the one talent he had but he chose to hide his talent and spent his time doing other things not related to his talent. And he got the nerve to give excuses and blame his master for not doing his job.

I know people who are good in singing but they do not bother to join the worship team because it a hassle for them. Some are good in sales but they never venture into their own business because they are lazy to enrol into business management classes or spend time to study. To be good in your talents you must be willing to learn more and practice regularly.

Athletics may be good at running or playing games but they must spend many hours in training in order to be a champion. If you want more rewards in heaven, be good with what you do and it will bless more people.

To be faithful means to persevere and continue on the job or ministry. Don’t give up easily when you face difficulties or problems, whether you are working or serving in the church

The benefit of staying longer and persevere is that you will learn the trade or ministry better and you can be skillful in your job or ministry. Good working knowledge comes from years of experience and solving problems as they come along. If you are the people who easily give up, you will not learn much and there is not much promotion for you. Remember, in the ministry or in your job, keep doing it despite difficulty or problems. You will gain valuable experience and know how and become a better worker for the LORD.

And lastly faithfulness is always giving thanks to God who has given you the talents. Never forget He is the one who helped you.

A faithful husband or wife will always stick together in good or bad times. If a husband or wife leaves we call them unfaithful. This is how some Christians treat God. Sometimes when we are successful and prosperous we forget about God, we spend a lot of time and effort in our work or talents that we do not come to church, pray to Him or serve Him.

Our talents become our God instead of Father God. It is sad to see Christians when they have nothing, they pray and fast for success and recognition in their business and jobs but when God gives this to them they are no longer in the church. God is looking for faithful people who will continue to seek Him in spite of their success so that He can give them more they can ever dream of.

Let us remain faithful to Him whether we have little or much. Keep on moving with Him and use all our gifts to glorify Him. Be motivated by love for Him and people. And surely when we meet Him we will hear His words whispered into our ears, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”

Please read also the posting Serving God in Our Working Place