Having researched and written on the subject of eternal rewards in my book The Law of Rewards, I’m well aware of the widespread opinion that doing anything with reward in mind is ungodly—despite the fact that Scripture regularly appeals to us to be motivated by eternal rewards (e.g., Luke 14:12-14; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 4:5; 9:24-25; 2 Corinthians 5:9-10; 2 Timothy 2:5; 4:8; Revelation 3:11-12; 19:8).
I encourage you to take a close look at God’s Word to understand that seeking the rewards He kindly offers His children is inseparable from our happiness. (Anything that doesn’t ultimately make us happy isn’t a reward!)
Life will only be lived well by those who look for the rewards of a life well lived. No one grows close to God unless that person believes that drawing close to God has a payoff: “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, emphasis added). Call that payoff contentment, satisfaction, peace, or excitement—it all adds up to one word: happiness.
The Bible’s offers of rewards for obeying and serving Jesus are all incentives for happiness. God rewards what makes Him happy, and when we receive His rewards, it makes us happy. No one who offers rewards is insulted when people value those rewards.
I’ve had a lot of coaches, but one I had in junior high really stood out—Coach McKeel. I worked hard at football for many reasons, but most of all to please him. His obvious love for his players motivated us to do our best. My greatest reward was seeing his smile and receiving his pat on my back. Years later, my desire to practice and play hard subsided under coaches who didn’t seem to care about me. When you lose the joy of playing a sport, the sacrifices are no longer worth it.
What God has done for us in Christ should make us want to please Him—even if there were no other reward for doing so. But graciously, He offers us rewards anyway. If we believe it’s impossible to please God, we’ll stop trying.
Where is overflowing joy located? Where can we find eternal pleasures? Psalm 16:11 tells us—in God’s presence. This verse is a treasure map where X marks the mother lode of happiness.
Unfortunately, “the presence of God” is often a catchphrase. We know that God is omnipresent (everywhere), that Jesus lives in our hearts, and that He promised He would be with us always, but we don’t always act as if that is true. Though we frequently sing and speak the jargon, we’re often blind to the moment-by-moment presence of the happy God with us, and therefore we’re blind to joy. It isn’t enough to say that God is present; we must recognize His presence with us, within us, and around us, and credit Him with all the joys and pleasures He graciously gives us.
Jon Bloom calls pleasure “the whistleblower of your heart.” He writes, “If something sinful gives you pleasure, it’s not a pleasure problem. It’s a treasure problem. Your pleasure mechanism is likely functioning just fine. It’s what you love that’s out of whack. And pleasure is outing you. It’s revealing that, despite what your mouth says and the image you try to project to others, something evil is precious to you.”
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presented what I’ve called the “treasure principle”:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21, NASB
Why does Jesus command His disciples to store up treasures “for yourselves”? Does it seem strange that Jesus commands us to do what’s in our own best interests? Isn’t that selfish? No. God expects and commands us to act out of enlightened self-interest. He wants us to live to His glory, but what’s for His glory is always for our good. As John Piper puts it in When I Don’t Desire God, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
Selfishness is when we pursue gain at the expense of others. But God’s treasures have no limit. When we store up treasures for ourselves in Heaven, it doesn’t reduce the treasures available to others. In fact, it’s by serving God and others that we store up heavenly treasures for ourselves. When we do that, everyone wins.
Hence, as He often did, Jesus clearly appealed to us to act in the interest of our own ultimate happiness by making small temporary sacrifices to obtain large eternal gain.
