THE ETERNAL REWARD
MAIN TEXT: PHILIPPIANS 3:14- “I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.
2 Tim 4:7 - 8 — “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, finally there is laid for me the crown of righteousness…
While imprisoned in Rome, Paul wrote to the church at Philippi to offer them genuine hope in a broken world. He encouraged his readers by telling them that though life in this world is sometimes hard and painful for the Christian, but things will get better. He wrote “I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ…(Phil. 1:23). It is a reminder to us that we can face the difficulties of living for Christ now because one day we will be with Him in an eternal home to enjoy our eternal reward of splendour and fullness; there we will say with brother Paul “I have fought the good fight…there is laid for me the crown of righteousness.
Life can be hard, but one day when we see Christ it will truly get better. The Apostle Paul had a perspective on life. He knew that he had not “arrived” spiritually, and that he had a long way to go in becoming like Christ. In Phil: 3 Paul tells us how to choose to live his life. “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead…(vs. 13-14). While it is wise to learn from the past, we should not live in the past. We cannot redo or undo the past, but by God’s grace we can press forward and serve God faithfully today and in the future. The life of faith is a journey forward as we become like Christ.
It is a perspective that speaks of moving on – of embracing what is next—the eternal reward in heaven. It is where we too must focus as we seek to be shaped into the image of the saviour while we look forward to eternity with Him.
KEEP YOUR EYES FIXED ON THE PRIZE.
SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES: REV. 21:14-27; I PETER 1:3-5.
