Well Done?

Everyone likes to be encouraged when they’ve done a good job. A “Way to go” or “Nice work” can go a long way. But my greatest desire is to hear these words of Jesus: 'Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matt 25:21). Perhaps it’s yours too. Not everyone will hear them, you know. It’s not an automatic greeting. Some will enter heaven as one escaping through the flames (I Cor 3:15). They accepted Christ’s gift of salvation, but never moved past that. Yet even those of us who received Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, and are trying to live a life that is pleasing to Him, don’t do it perfectly. We can’t. At least not this side of eternity.

We know the opportunity for the words “Well done” to be spoken to us by the Lord won’t happen until the end of our lives. What do we do with that? Try our hardest, then hope and pray that’s how Christ will greet us when we enter eternity? As I was considering this, I felt a prompting to my heart. I’m pretty sure it was from the Lord. Instead of wondering if the entirety of my time on earth will ultimately be a pleasing offering to the Lord, I’m taking it one day at a time. A much more realistic and attainable goal is to seek to hear those words at the end of today. And by bedtime tomorrow. And so on. Because being a good and faithful servant of Jesus for a lifetime is made up of countless days of walking that out.

Just something I’m trying to do along the way.