God Himself is our greatest reward
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15 ESV)
Rather than seeing rewards as “payment” for the things we’ve done for the Lord in this life, it would be more appropriate to consider them an acknowledgment from the Lord of our love and our obedience to His Word and living our lives as He has instructed us.
Whatever rewards God decides to give us, in this life or the next, aren’t earned or deserved purely through our works, any more than we earn God’s love or His salvation. The greatest reward is the blessing of having a relationship with our Creator, the God of love who has saved us through the sacrifice of His Son—and we have that blessing right now, in this life.
The greatest reward for believers is having the Lord in our lives. Our lives as Christians are meant to be God-focused, living in a manner that glorifies Him. The rewards we receive for living in that manner will be given as an outward acknowledgment of the love for and obedience to God which we manifested through the lives we led.
Our love for the Lord, the way we follow and serve Him, and our actions which are done for His glory, all factor in to the rewards we will receive in heaven and in some ways in this life as well. Our goal isn’t the rewards; it’s to love and live for God. We do best when we understand that God Himself is our greatest reward. [1]
Even though there will be degrees of reward in heaven, the joy of each person will be full and complete for eternity. … Our true happiness consists in delighting in God and rejoicing in the status and recognition that He has given us. - Wayne Grudem
[1] Anchor Rewards
