We also have the benefit of God hearing our prayers and answering our prayers, Matthew 7, verses 7 through 11 [“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”]. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you” and “everyone who asks receives.”

We also have freedom from worry, 1 Peter 5, verse 7. People in the world can’t cast their cares upon Him, which is what Peter says there in that text, “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

We also have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2, verse 38 [“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”], and 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 [“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, Whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”].

And we have the hope of something better to come, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 16 through 19 [“For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”]. That’s where Paul will conclude his thought by saying, if this is all there is, then we “of all men are most miserable,” [King James Version—“we are of all men most miserable.”]. Again, a lyric from a song that went, “Is that all there is?” Paul says, if this is all there is, in other words, this world—this that we have around us—if that is all there is, “then we of all men are most miserable.”

We also have the fellowship of the saints. How often do we think about that one? 1 John 1, verse 7 speaks about “walking in the light as He is in the light and we have fellowship one with another,” [“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”]. Do we often think about the benefit—the value—of the fellowship that we have as a member of the church, having our brothers and our sisters to be a part of that family? Sometimes, perhaps, we pass over that one rather lightly. However, when an individual or family has a crisis, or has problem of some kind, I often hear them say, “I don’t know what I would do without the church.” We need to remember this all of the time!

These are not all of the benefits that God gives to His children in this life.. There are certainly more! But the greatest reward of all for us as Christians is the promise—the hope—of eternal life! It is the “crown of life,” as Paul describes in 2 Timothy 4, verse 8, and as it is also described in Revelation 2, verse 10 [“Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”]. The crown of life is promised to all who are faithful to the end—a crown which is incorruptible. And this puts us into that Heavenly realm—into that eternal Kingdom—where there is unending communion with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, with all the Heavenly hosts, and all of the redeemed of all ages, forever and ever. What a prize! What a reward we have awaiting us! The apostle spoke of this prize which awaited him and awaits us, too. Quoting now from 2 Timothy 4, verse 8, Paul says, “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

Over in 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, verses 24 through 27 [“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”], Paul will speak about one who is running an athletic race. Paul frequently used the metaphor of athletes. Some believe that Paul may have actually attended and witnessed some of the Olympic Games. Nevertheless, this is something that he was clearly familiar with, and he uses that metaphor of the games, of running, and so on. There in that text, he talks about one who runs for a crown. The award that was given to the one who won the race was a laurel wreath, a “crown” that was made of leaves. It was something that was temporal, and that would not last. It gave that athlete incentive to run the race, to try his best to win, and so on. Paul will conclude that what they run for is something which will fade away, but that the crown of righteousness that he was striving for—that we are striving for—will never fade away.

Paul truly knew what it was to seek the benefits of God, both in this life and in the life to come. God truly is a Great Rewarder! He surely offers us many wonderful benefits and rewards.