You Will Never Be Forgotten
The God who repeatedly tells us to remember, never forgets to do so himself. That’s why nothing you did for him has been forgotten by him. The significance of what you did has never diminished in the slightest, not even with the passing of years.
Others may overlook you. Generations may come and go without your name ever drawing attention. Historians may never say a word about you. The newspaper will have probably cited your name at least twice: in your birth announcement and in your obituary. But after that, nothing.
The winds blew, the seasons kept their appointments, the years became decades, and the decades became centuries. Perhaps your grave marker can be found, but more than likely it isn’t there anymore. You are forgotten!
So did all those years of prayer and faithfulness just disappear? Did your life of loyalty and love for God mean so little it’s never going to be remembered? Such a sobering scenario! Did the broad sweep of history cover you up? And did eternity also cover up all that you did while time unfolded?
If the answer to these questions is yes, yes, yes, and yes, that would drastically deflate your significance.
This will not happen, at least on God’s part!
One day you will stand front and center before a judge who loves you dearly. Unlike the courtrooms of our world, nothing bad will be judged; all that was good about your life will be under full review.
The verdict he renders will be one you’ll want to hear. And should that qualify you for rewards, then, before all the angels and millions of the assembled saints, the most stupendous rewards will be bestowed on you, rewards more magnificent than any given to anyone on earth.
Oh, what a day! Better even than our biggest dreams! And better also than our highest aspirations! A day far better than any fantasy ever created!
Fortunately, what we know about this day goes beyond possible truth, about which there can be no certainty. Because what we know about God’s rewards is established truth, about which there can be no doubt.
In fact, this teaching about rewards came from the lips of the highest dominical authority—the Master himself, the Head of the church! Moreover, this subject of rewards was reinforced by inspired writers from both testaments of Scripture.
Given this credentialing, it is amazing that most Christians know very little about God’s rewards. And not only know little, but seem to have very little curiosity about them.
Imagine that! The God of Heaven and earth—whose power to create exceeds our ability to comprehend, and whose affection for goodness surpasses any affection we’ve ever known—poised this hour to create awesome rewards for the faithful. And we’re not even interested? Really? We who could receive these rewards—and isn’t even on our radar?
So what’s distracting us? Our job … our hobbies … our next vacation? If so, do we really think that if we got it all—every promotion desired, every pleasure granted, every need supplied—that the sum of all that would equal what God is offering? I repeat, what God is offering?
Now, if this supposed “some-day” offer came from a slick salesman, we might well dismiss it.
And if it came from a beholden politician, we might well shrug it off with deserved skepticism.
But these rewards were announced by one who could never lie, and would never exaggerate! Moreover, the way these announcements were made—with a deliberate intent to arouse high expectation—should never be dismissed with a yawn and a shrug.
These rewards warrant our full attention, especially when we consider they aren’t dispensed in a day, nor confined to a ceremony. The rewards largely define eternity! That’s right, eons of bliss are at stake—and we think nothing about this?
The smartest thing anyone can do is to bend the knee, humble the heart, and ask the same question the trembling and astonished Saul asked that day on the Damascus Road, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”
Failing to ask this question, many Christians today settle for too little, as if God’s extravagant rewards weren’t understood. In his book, The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis addressed this sad point with vivid candor.
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.1
A.B. Simpson spoke these words of challenge:
May God arouse us from lethargy, apathy and trifling. We have a glorious crown to win. We have a living age in which to win it. We have one short life to accomplish. We have the mighty Holy Spirit to help us win the conflict and gain the prize. Let us eagerly desire the best gifts, and let all our being be invested in the one stupendous opportunity of a life for God, for humanity and for an eternal prize.2
There is so much to gain and so much to lose.
Rewards were ordained by God to motivate obedience. So are you the only one who doesn’t need motivation? Keep in mind, God knows us, and therefore with that knowledge informing him and inspiring him, it was he who conceived these rewards.
And how good are they? Far better than any marquis-advertising fame. Once understood, these rewards will cause eyes to widen, faces to flush, hearts to skip, breathing to stop, and an unsurpassable thrill to overcome us—and remain!
You are not forgotten! All the godly good in you is cherished in the heart of God and will be on eternal display when you go to be with him in Heaven.
Notes:
1. C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, (Grand Rapids, MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1973), pp.1-2.
2. A.B. Simpson, The Christ in the Bible Commentary, Volume Five, (Camp Hill, PA., WingSpread Publishers, 2009), p.221.
