The Greatest Reward

"I set before you today LIFE and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in HIS ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed....Now CHOOSE LIFE, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD IS YOUR LIFE..." Deuteronomy 30:15-20
The other day I was contemplating what is the greatest reward that God has to offer us? What is the greatest thing that he gives us?
Think about that - God can and does bless us with so many things...
Our working bodies. Healing. Peace. Food. Money should we need it. Guidance. Discernment. Joy. Prosperity. Faith. Strength. Being alive. Family. Friends. Community. His Word. Freedom. Gifts to edify the body. Gifts that help us enjoy what he has given us. Self-control. Sunrises and Sunsets. Animals. Plants. Technology. Air Conditioning. Heat. Talent. The ability to make things. The intelligence to learn and understand. The ability to communicate. Salvation. Grace. Mercy. Friendship.

I feel like I could start a debate as people discuss what is most worthy of all things, but I have one that I would like to put forth as the most important, most valuable, and without it - all this other "stuff" is meaningless.
I believe that the greatest reward we could be given is God himself for he is our LIFE.
Now that I've said that, you might say it's a "no-brainer" or that it is a cheater answer (Kinda like how almost every Sunday school question can be answered with "Jesus Christ"), but here me out because I think that there is something deeper in this than meets the eye.

Now if you search on Biblegateway for the word LIFE, you will probably come up with 589 matches so long as you search the NIV version of course. Life is important.

God mentions it in the beginning.
And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food. Genesis 1:30
In the garden there was the tree of life (mind you it was of the tree of the knowledge of god and evil that they couldn't eat from - I'm assuming that they could eat from the tree of life). And it was because of this tree that God sent the naughty apple-eaters out of the garden.
And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." Genesis 3:22
This I think is because life is special and that which is precious is worthy of being protected, protected in this case by an angel with a flaming sword - not someone I would want to mess with personally.

OK so, maybe by now you are thinking, where are you going with this? You said God was the greatest gift? Yes, yes I did. Go back and read the first verse at the beginning... Go on, scroll up.
God is your life!
Don't you see. Breath of life - the holy spirit - God himself was in everything.
After they ate the apple, Adam and Eve were soiled - no longer pure and innocent and blameless. They were not sweet smelling to our Father any more. They needed to be separated from him - almost like how God had the inner court separated from the everyday Jew and only the priests AFTER extensive sacrifices and covering of blood from sweet smelling innocent animals were they allowed to come into the presence of God - the presence of life.
After sin, we no longer had everlasting access to LIFE.

Until Jesus.

 ¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." ... ¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Matthew 16:10, 13-14
Through Christ we once again had access to the root of life, the source of life. And when we come to Christ, eat of his body and drink of his blood, eating of the tree of life, we have life - an everlasting life- within us.

After Jesus, we can have access to LIFE through the spirit. This is not instead of Jesus, but rather it is in addition. It is part of that continual flow where we can increase the flow of life - the flow of God - that enters us by the way we live.

 ⁵Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶The mind of sinful man^[a] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; ⁷the sinful mind^[b] is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. ^8
 9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. Romans 8:5-10

Belonging to the Spirit of Christ and with Christ in us, our bodies are dead, but our spirits have life - because of righteousness, because of a righteousness that does not belong to us, because of Christ's righteousness, because of God's righteousness. When our minds are controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace. When we release control to God (any of the 3 parts for they are all apart of each other), we are able to be filled with God as our mind has become a place that is hospitable to his spirit. When we submit to God, we are able to accept and receive and be full of the gift of God himself. He comes within us and dwells within us and we are together with him.

back to Deuteronomy...
"I set before you today LIFE and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in HIS ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed....Now CHOOSE LIFE, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD IS YOUR LIFE..." Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Our God has offered, I believe since the first day, a choice between life and the absence of life (i.e. death). With life we have prosperity. Without life, there is nothing but destruction. That choice is a monumental choice - the choice to accept a gift freely given or to reject it. In the old testament, you made your choice by walking the fine line of "you are right" or "you are wrong." Post-Jesus, we are offered the choice to live by Christ (with the addition of grace and mercy) or to reject Christ. If we live by Christ, we are known by our love - that is a sign of the presence of life within us.
And it is with God and by his power that we may have the fullness of his presence and blessings. It is through Jesus Christ that all those who fall short of the glory of God are able to have this life.  And when he fills us up, we are then able to love him, listen to his voice and hold fast to him.


Again this is one of those times that I am just musing and wondering about God and his word. I'm not saying that my words are all truth, but I think that somewhere in there is some good truth that can encourage and definitely reminds me at least that God is his own reward. If I seek him I will find him and while there are other blessings that come with him, He is my ultimate reward.