Get a “preparation perspective”

Paul wrote, “We make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (vv. 9-10 NKJV). If you are wise, you will live each day with this truth uppermost in your mind. You’ll have a “preparation perspective”! Think about it this way: you don’t just wake up one morning and say, “I’ve decided to be a lawyer [or a doctor, or an accountant, etc.]” No, you make that decision many years earlier, and then you work toward it. Now let’s be clear. As a Christian, you’re not working to earn your salvation but to earn your reward in heaven. Salvation is the foundation you build on, and the Bible says, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11 NLT). Then Paul went on to say, “Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames” (vv. 12-15 NLT). When you stand before Christ, you have two options—rewards or regrets. So get a “preparation perspective.”