Alcorn’s Reward Principle # 3: God offers us rewards that are eternal, imperishable, and inexhaustible. Moses prayed in the oldest psalm, “Establish the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17) or “Make permanent the work of our hands.” The way we make permanent the work of our hands is to give away what our hands have worked to produced. John Wesley said, “Money never stays with me. It would burn me if it did. I throw it out of my hands as soon as possible, lest it should find its way into my heart.” Wesley earned considerable book royalties. At a time when a single man could live comfortably on thirty pounds a year, his annual income reached fourteen hundred. Yet Wesley’s goal was to give so generously that he would leave virtually nothing behind when he died. He achieved that goal.
Imagine you’re alive at the end of the Civil War. You’re living in the south, but your are a Northerner. You plan to move home as soon as the war is over. While in the South you’ve accumulated loss of Confederate currency for U. S. currency—the only money that will have value once the war is over. Keep only enough Confederate currency to meet your short-term needs.
When the Lord returns, all remaining money not invested in God’s work will be like Confederate money, useless. Money given to support Gospel spreading ministries will be like “gold, silver, and precious stones” in eternity.
Are you stockpiling Confederate currency? Or are you exchanging it for kingdom currency that will survive this world…and retain its value for all eternity?
