Heavenly Goals

A while back I went to my grandson’s soccer game, and I noticed a problem with sports for kids today: they don’t keep score. The rationale is that everyone is a winner. However, this doesn’t prepare kids for real life. In real life there are actual winners, and there are actual losers.

And by the way, God doesn’t say that everyone is a winner. In fact, the Bible teaches that the Lord will judge Christians one day in Heaven at the Judgment Seat of Christ. There He will reward us for our faithful service to Him.

He will give rewards to those who have achieved things for Him. And those who didn’t achieve much for Him won’t receive any rewards.

The apostle Paul described this judgment in 1 Corinthians 3: “But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames” (verses 13–15 NLT).

We will go to Heaven because of what God did for us in sending Jesus to die on the cross. The Bible tells us, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8–9 NLT).

Although God has saved us by His grace, do we really want to have nothing to show for our lives when we’re in Heaven? We want God to reward us because of our faithful service to Him.