All Glory to God

Serving to please Christ is a greater reward than public acclaim.

“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

God calls us to glorify Him in all that we do. When we do things with a pure motive to glorify and please God through Christ Jesus, we will begin to experience an ecstacy of pure joy inside our heart. This joy comes as a evidence from the throne of God in heaven that we have truly pleased God. Faith pleases God because it first's tests the motives of our heart and purifies us by making us to wait many times in isolation. Trials tests us and always makes us to trust His love as the only reward worthy of our pursuit in life (John 7:18). Seeing that we have fully trusted God and His unconditional love more than public acclaim (John 5:41, 44; 8:54), then God gives acknowledgement by filling us with joy inexpressible as a sign that He is pleased with us (Heb 11:6; 1 Peter 1:7-8). 

When Jesus was ministering to a lone Samaritan woman instead of going insearch of food with His disciples, He was doing ministry at that time with hunger pangs not for any acclaim from his fellow disciples or any other persons anywhere else. His only motive in staying back was to fullfill His Father's will. This pleased the Heavenly Father so much that he removed the natural hunger out of the physical body of Jesus and filled Him with Joy inside-out so that His disciples who returned back with food began to wonder whether Jesus had already eaten food from some other source when He showed no interest in it (John 4:6-8, 27, 31-34). Actually Jesus was satisfied with the food of heaven which is to do the will of God and receive joy in equal measure. This satisfaction and joy of doing God's will in our lives always gives us a taste of heaven on earth so that the earthly things dimishes in value, need and comparision.

So what are we after, heavenly eternal saisfaction, or temporal earthly satisfaction. If we are earthly minded we will do the work of God for public acclaim, but if we are heavenly minded with a desire to please none other than only God who has called us to serve Him (Eph 2:10), then the joy and satisfaction will come from heaven to sustain us supernaurally on earth. Thus we will live on "...earth as it is in heaven" (Matt 6:10).

We don't go to heaven to find Christ; we go to Christ to find heaven. As C.S. Lewis said, "Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither."

Apostle Paul after experiencing the heavenly life on earth was so stirred up that he exhorted the believers, "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." (Col 3:2). This great Apostle knew by all his life experiences that nothing satisfies on earth and gives a greater reward than pleasing Christ by fullfilling God's will of serving His people and by being yoked with Jesus in His suffering (Phil 7-8, 10-11; Acts9:4-5).

"All is vanity but to love and serve Him." - Thomas A` Kempis