Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Yesterday, we began our look at five eternal "crowns" set aside for God's servants. After listing the first three crowns again, I'll add the final two and offer a brief explanation of each.

As those who serve the living God, we occasionally need to consider the eternal "crowns" being set aside for God's servants. What an intriguing study! There are at least five crowns promised in the Bible.

Based on 1 Corinthians 3:10–14, I see three facts about our eternal rewards for serving God. Let's review the first two facts I mentioned yesterday, and then I'll complete the list with the third.

Scripture not only supports the idea of eternal rewards, it spells out the specifics. In 1 Corinthians 3:10–14, I find three primary facts about rewards. We'll look at the first two today and complete the list tomorrow.

The most difficult discipline in the Christian life, in my opinion, is waiting. But God used that to force us to lean on Him . . . to trust Him . . . to believe in Him . . . to release our will and accept His.

I have found great help from two truths God gave me at a time in my life when I was bombarded with a series of unexpected and unfair blows (from my perspective).

Paul was no criminal. The man was innocent of wrong . . . yet he was misunderstood, mistreated, hunted like a wounded deer, and hated by those who once respected him. In 2 Corinthians 4:9, Paul states we are "struck down."

It's hard for me to read Paul's words without wincing: "Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep."

Elie Wiesel gives readers a tragic perspective on the horror of the holocaust. Wiesel's book, Night, will grab you and not let you go. In terse, tightly packed sentences, he describes those scenes and his own confusion.

Funny, we seldom think that a great apostle like Paul ever suffered from insomnia, but he did. He couldn't sleep sometimes because of acute deprivations, like hunger, cold, and exposure.

It is an inescapable fact. If you get serious about being shaped into Christ's image, you'll have to learn to cope with the consequences of being a servant of God. Those who serve will suffer.

If you enjoy watching and playing the game of football (I certainly do), you have observed a curious activity called a "spike." It's rather unusual. A team fights its way toward the goal line yard by yard.

In yesterday's post, we were introduced to four common struggles all servants of God deal with. Really, they're consequences. In 2 Corinthians 4:8–9 we read them: afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down.

We Christians have received a priceless treasure (the glorious gospel) in a very frail and perishable container (our weak bodies). There is a reason. So nobody will have any question about the source of power.

Greathearted, loving, caring, sacrificial servants of the living God have known ill treatment down through the centuries. The consequence of serving is no new phenomenon. It goes a long way back in time.

As you serve people in ministry, you will give, forgive, forget, release your own will, obey God to the maximum, and wash dirty feet with an attitude of gentleness and humility.

We Americans like things to be logical and fair. We not only like that, we operate our lives on that basis. Logic and fairness are big guns in our society. Meaning this: if I do what is right, good will come to me.

Reading the words of our Savior, we need to realize the tremendous emphasis He put on obedience. As I think about appropriating Christ's model and commands, three specifics seem important enough to mention.

For a moment, let's pretend you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I'm the owner and I'm interested in expanding overseas.

Jesus said a strong thing to Peter when He spoke these words: "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me" (John 13:8). Our Lord's rebuke introduces a convicting observation.