My daughter can be challenging to motivate, as is true of nearly any three year old. Quite often I offer her a reward for accomplishing a task. I've noticed that making a promise of general reward is not as effective as being specific about the payoff. If I say, “You will get a reward for cleaning up your room,” she immediately has to know what the reward is. If I don't have some well-thought-out payoff, then she lags in her duties. However, saying, "If you clean your room, I'll give you a red sucker," usually produces diligent dutifulness.
It's human nature to question the reward to see if the work will be worth it. My daughter wants to know if the reward is something she actually wants. If it isn't, she will find it difficult to be motivated to finish the task. For her, cookies, candies, and trips to the zoo seem to be the top octane fuel for getting work done.
It stands to reason that the same would be true for adults. If a businessperson offers you a job, what are the two things you want to know? What is the job and how much does it pay? You can quickly do the labor-to-pay formula in your head. If the job is digging trenches in the sun-dried red clay of East Texas for 12 hours a day and the pay is $3.50 an hour, you probably wouldn't take that job. However, if the job is petting kittens two hours a day and it pays $5000 an hour well you'd probably take it.
Did you know that Jesus said you’ll be repaid for good work? That’s right. He once said, “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
Did you catch that? He said, “You shall be repaid.” It’s as if he’s keeping your receipts in a filing cabinet in Heaven. When you arrive, he’ll pull your file and issue reimbursements. The repayment He gives outweighs the work we do. Doing what He says to do in this verse is hard. Nonetheless, Jesus said we’ll be paid for hard work.
What will the rewards be? We've already alluded to the answer, but it's time that we spell it out. I'm convinced that these categories can describe the rewards in Heaven: Riches, Rights, Recognition, Regalia, Royalty, and Relationship. We can find each of these categories of eternal reward throughout scripture. Let’s begin by taking a look at the first category, riches in Heaven.
