Live to increase your eternal reward. Be excited about the inheritance reserved in heaven for you!
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a word about your inheritance.
And an inheritance is a pretty precious thing, isn’t it? My dear daddy when he passed away left an inheritance to me and my sisters. My older sisters and I all have a share in the family farm back in Maryland. And for me? Daddy gave me part of the big hayfield which sits across the road from our barn. Last summer Ken and I had a chance to walk that hayfield [well, I wheeled through it], and I so enjoyed the view of the state park from the top of the field, as well as that wonderful, sweet scent of new mown hay. It is, to me, a precious inheritance. Daddy felt I deserved that part of the Maryland farm, and bless his heart, he just gave it to me out of his generous spirit. And my sisters didn’t mind at all that I got a big part of the hayfield. We know that my father had sole authority on how he wanted to disperse the farm, my sisters and I knew he had the last word, and that was fine with us.
And in a special way, I think this wonderfully parallels what the Bible has to say about our inheritance as Christians. Like our earthly fathers, our heavenly father has sole discretion on how he doles out our inheritance. In fact, among other things, the Bible says that our inheritance is a reward; unlike our salvation, it is something that we earn. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.” But there’s one more important thing the Bible says about our inheritance. We can lose it. We can diminish it. We can lessen it and make it smaller. Matthew 5:19 has a warning to any disciple who takes lightly his eternal inheritance. Jesus says there, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”
Did you hear those words? I don’t want to be least in the kingdom of heaven. Now, to be fair, it also says that anyone who practices and teaches God's commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven, but the point is, you can either enrich your eternal reward or diminish it. You can add to it or detract from it, all by the way you live, all by the way you choose to honor God in a situation, or not to honor him. You can serve with an eye to God’s glory or serve out of selfish interest or self-promotion. You can obey his Word or disobey it. We cannot lose our salvation, but we can lose our reward. Now there’s something you can tweet to a friend!
And personally, I want to live in such a way as to increase my eternal reward. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize it. My inheritance, that is, my capacity to worship God, and serve him, and enjoy him forever hinges on how I live as a Christian on earth. And I want to increase my capacity every day to serve, and worship, and enjoy the Lord, I mean, don’t you? So, friend, whatever you do today, as Colossians 3 says, “Work at it with all your heart [live to God's glory] since you know you will receive an inheritance as a reward.”
Now, I hope with all my heart that this helps empower you to live today. Because you are my Christian sister; you are my brother in the Lord. And together, I want us to get excited about the inheritance reserved in heaven for us – it’s a precious thing, so let’s live in such a way as to build it up. And one more thing, we here at Joni and Friends would love to pray for you. Share with us your prayer need at joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends