It is the end of the day and you are tired. You rest for a few minutes. Your mind wanders and you realize you are thinking mostly about food and buying a new car. You haven’t really thought about your connection to God (let alone any rewards in heaven.) It would be good to get alone and pray for five minutes but that means making a little sacrifice. Do you go to pray…?
The riches of the world are nothing compared to rewards in heaven. If we have a moderate share of worldly things then we have enough wealth. Any more than that nearly always produces materialism, and often anxiety. As we develop a heavenly mindset we can see better how twisted people become as they fall in love with the riches of the world. Even all the necessities of life – eating, drinking, working, finding shelter – are a burden compared to the joy and lightness of our future to come. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (ESV.) Our rewards in heaven will come from God’s hands so they will be extremely valuable in eternity. We are not talking about a new car or a nice house; the rewards will be far beyond those and beyond anything on Earth now.
Consider the examples of Jesus, his apostles, and the great Christians of the past. Consider how they did not acquire wealth on earth but acquired spiritual wealth that truly satisfies the heart. Consider how their wealth will last for eternity, (“lay up treasure in heaven” Matt. 6:19-20). They embraced the teaching to: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things,” Col. 3:2 (NIV).
As we develop a heavenly mindset we can see better how twisted people become as they fall in love with the riches of the world.
This encourages us to persevere in our discipleship journey to Christlikeness. Now is the time to give our attention to the riches of transformation God desires to give to us. Now is the time to invest in prayer and scripture together. Our future spiritual profit, rewards in heaven, will be spectacular. The pain and discipline we endure in Christformation is so much better than the misery and emptiness of chasing worldly treasure. We will have some pain either way because that is our inheritance from Adam’s fall. But the pain of following Jesus brings joy and rewards in heaven that will delight us forever; the pain of the world brings despair.
Paul often mentioned how hard he worked at spiritual growth. Consider how active we must be in order to defeat our destructive desires. We want to be rid of our sins, and we confess our sins and set our mind on not repeating them. But often we do repeat them. Why is this? Because our flesh wars against our spirit and slows our spiritual growth. Thus, we do not slack off but rather continue in our spiritual disciplines. If we do not see spiritual growth then we reexamine our life. But when we do see growth we rejoice and walk in peace, for we are acquiring “treasure in heaven,” and the biggest treasure is our friendship with God. (This post is partly based on Chapter 22 of the classic The Imitation of Christ.)
How much do you think about your rewards in heaven? If you think about the reward, does it make it easier to be faithful to your spiritual practices (prayer, bible meditation)?
