GOD WANTS TO GIVE YOU CROWNS

God's rewards are more wonderful than any human mind has ever been able to imagine: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him" (I Cor. 2:9).

The Bible speaks of crowns that will be won by those with whom God is pleased. They are expressions of His delight for all of us, laypersons and clergy alike, who run in such a way that will win the prize.

The four crowns from God:

1. The Crown of Life.This crown rewards the believer's faithfulness during trials. The Lord will reward those who accept trials with joy (James 1:2-3, 12). If we will love and trust God during times of adversity, our moral strength and stamina will only increase and make our character pleasing to God. Regardless of how bad things may appear, God wants us to trust in Him.

2. The Crown of Righteousness. This crown is for those who long to see Him face to face, and ponder it daily (2 Tim. 4:7-8). Jesus talked about this longing in the parable of the master who went on a long journey (Matt. 24:44-51). Servants who eagerly and actively await their master's appearing are those who love their master and obey His instructions even during His absence.

3. The Crown of Glory. This crown awaits those, who out of right motives, shepherd God's people (I Peter 5: 2-4). Shepherds are not merely to tell the sheep how to live, but to demonstrate by their own lives how to live. Jesus provided the example of the perfect shepherd, and He also provides the strength to follow His example. God will reward those who serve others eagerly and see their labor as a privilege. This crown is reserved for those who have the same heart Jesus has toward His sheep, described in John 10:11: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

4. The Crown of Rejoicing. This is the soul winner's crown (I Thess. 2:19-20). It is not hard to understand God's eagerness to reward those who bring the lost to Him. But we are not always geared toward evangelism and we let negative thinking hinder our reaching out. We must realize that a relationship with God is exactly what unbelievers are searching for, whether they realize it or not, and reaching out to them causes God to rejoice.

Jamie Lash (M.B.A., Baylor) is director of student development and professor of economics at a Christian university in Dallas. He teaches seminars and writes articles on Christian growth.

From This Was Your Life! by Rick Howard and Jamie Lash. Used by permission of Chosen Books, a division of Baker Book House Company, Grand Rapids, Mich. Copyright (c) 1998 by Rick Howard and Jamie Lash. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Book House Company.

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