Daily Encouragement: Day 261
From Handbook to Wisdom, Day 261
THE PROMISE OF REWARD
There is no one who has left house or brothers
or sisters or mother or father or children or fields
for Your sake and the gospel’s,
who will not receive a hundred times
as much in this present age—
houses, brothers, sisters, mothers,
children and fields, along with persecutions—
and in the age to come, eternal life.
(Mark 10:29–30)
Those who are rich in this present world
should not be arrogant or set their hope on the
uncertainty of riches
but on God, who richly provides us with
everything for our enjoyment.
They should do good, be rich in good works,
and be generous and willing to share.
In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves
as a firm foundation for the future,
so that they may lay hold of true life.
(1 Timothy 6:17–19)
In his sermon “The Weight of Glory,” C. S. Lewis distinguishes two kinds of reward:
“We must not be troubled by unbelievers when they say that this promise of reward makes the Christian life a mercenary affair. There are different kinds of reward. There is the reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it, and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany those things. Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man a mercenary if he married a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not mercenary for desiring it. … The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.”
Rewards in the kingdom of heaven are based on our faithfulness to the opportunities we have been given during our earthly lives. These rewards are the consummation of the pursuit of God.