81 - The Greatest Reward

When people talk about serving the Lord, when they try to convince us to selflessly minister to others, they often assure us that our service will bring with it a deep sense of fulfillment. We will feel good about ourselves knowing that we did something meaningful and helpful. But in practice, such feelings may boost our self-esteem for a moment, but they rarely make up for the level of personal sacrifice that was required of us. So those who serve in order to get those good feelings, soon discover the result wasn’t worth the effort, those feelings aren’t worth the cost. Which, I think, is why some people start out with the best intentions of helping others but quickly grow weary of it. What they got wasn’t worth what they gave.

But there is a reward that’s worth the cost. Like a mother who quickly forgets her labor as she holds her new baby in her arms, there is a gift of God so wonderful that it outweighs the suffering we had to endure to gain it. This reward is seldom, if ever, mentioned. In fact, it’s hard to think of anyone but Jesus and Paul (2Co 12:9, 10) who talk about it. But it is the greatest reward a human can receive this side of heaven. It is the gift of God’s presence. It is that incredible feeling of knowing that He is there with us, helping us, guiding us, protecting us, providing for us, working miracles for us so that we can do what He has called us to do. There is nothing this life can offer that is sweeter. His presence is unlike anything else. And that evening, as Jesus prepared His disciples for the new season ahead, He explained to them that if they loved Him they would obey Him. Which, of course, meant that they would seek to live according to the truths He had taught them, and on a day to day basis, would try to do what they “saw” Him doing and speak what they “heard” Him speaking. They would enter into a submitted relationship with Him like the relationship He had modeled, for the past two and a half years, between Himself and His Father.

Let’s hear His words again, but this time let’s listen not only to the command, but also to the promise that goes with it. 
“The one who has My commands and keeps (obeys) them, that is the one who loves Me. And the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself [in him] to him” (literal) (v21).

And again, “If someone loves Me, he will keep (obey) My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and We will make a dwelling place with (beside) him” (literal) (v23).

Later that evening He added this statement, 
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and [that] your joy may be made full” (Jn 15:10, 11).

His logic is straightforward and easy to understand. He says, in effect, “If you love Me you’ll obey Me, and if you obey Me the Father and I will be with you. And when We are with you, you will be full of joy.” He laid out the conditions and stated the results. If we do this, He will do that, and if He does that, the effect upon us will be this. He is showing us the path that leads to the greatest reward of all.