Our Reward in Heaven (Luke 6:22–23)

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
– Luke 6:22–23

How do you do that? Just think about what Jesus just said. “When people hate you and they exclude you and revile you and spur your name as evil, when they slander you, when they speak, all kinds of evil falsely against you on my account”, as the way Matthew 5 puts it. Jesus says, “Rejoice when this happens. You’re blessed, not just rejoice. Leap for joy”. How do you leap for joy when people are speaking evil against you? That’s so counterintuitive. How is that even possible?

Luke 6:22–23 calls us to live for A heavenly reward.

And here’s the secret, it’s only possible when you realize you’re not living for what others say about you now. You’re living for what God sees in you now and what God will give you in another world. “Rejoice”, Jesus says, “leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven”. And this is a theme we see all over the gospels. Jesus saying, “Don’t live for reward here on this earth, in this world, and what others say about you here. Live for reward in heaven, for what God sees and what God will say about you in the end”.

This is a very, not just counterintuitive but counter-cultural way to live, to have your eyes so fixed on Jesus and what he sees, what he knows, that you are totally immune, numb to what others say or think about you. And this is so freeing. It’s a freeing way to live, to have your eyes fixed on Jesus and to not live for what others think or say about you, but to live for what he sees and what he will say about you in eternity.

Luke 6:22–23 calls us to live for an audience of one.

So God, help us today to live with our eyes fixed on you alone.

God, we pray that you would free us from the desire for approval from others. You would free us from living for what others say about us or think about us. God, help us to live with our eyes fixed on you for what you see, for what you say about us now and will say about us forever. Help us to live today for reward in heaven, not reward on earth for your well done, good and faithful servant, not others, acclaim or acknowledgement or approval.

God, please free us, each of us in a fresh way today to live for you alone with joy. Leaping for joy, because our eyes and our hearts, our minds, our lives are just focused on you. Oh God, thank you that our eternity does not hinge on what others think or say about us in this fallen world. But our eternity hinges on who you are and what you say about us in your Word.

So God, help us to spread your Word with joy today, no matter what people might say about us. God, help us to lay aside our concerns about our reputation and speak your Word to other people today and to be a part of the spread of your Word around the world.

Prayer for the Jat Varaich People

We pray today for the Jat Varaich people of Pakistan. Lord, you know all 1.13 million Western Punjabi-speaking Jat Varaich people, you love them. We pray for the spread of the gospel to them. We pray for the spread of the gospel through our Pakistani brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing persecution day in and day out. Help them to rejoice and leap for joy amidst persecution as they spread the gospel to peoples like the Jat Varaich people. That they might have reward in heaven as we your people live for reward in heaven. Oh God, please help us to live counterintuitive counter-cultural lives because we’re living for reward in heaven. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.