You probably can’t, for he won’t want to learn unless you reward him every time he does it. Watch closely: When you see people showing off their pets who do these funny things, they always slip the pet a little treat. Even horses or other big animals won’t learn unless you reward them with something special each time.
That makes us ask, Why do we serve Jesus? Is it because we’ll get a reward? Why do we keep the Sabbath? Pay our tithe? Go to church? Get baptized? Become missionaries? Most people will confess, “It’s because I want to go to heaven. I don’t want to be lost.” And of course those are good reasons; nobody wants to be lost at last.
Be honest with yourself
Let’s hope you help at home to keep your house clean and running. You do your part washing the dishes, vacuuming the rug, taking out the garbage, washing the car, mowing the lawn—whatever. Do you pout if your parents don’t give you a special treat for doing it? I hope not! I hope you are ready and willing and cheerful when it comes your turn to help—all simply because you love your parents and you love others in the home, and because you know it’s the right thing to do whether you get any special reward or not. (To tell the truth, you can’t be happy at home unless that is the reason why you help!)
Do you think your parents could be happy if they knew that the only reason you do anything is to get paid for it?
Let’s not forget: Jesus Christ is a real person
He has feelings like we have. He can be hurt, just as we can. We can make Him happy or we can cause Him pain.
He has done something that makes the world marvel because no one else since time began has done it. He has died our second death in our place. He gave Himself with no idea of getting a reward for doing so. When He died our “second death” (as the Bible describes it, Revelation 2:11), that meant He had given up all thought of a reward.
Someone very wise has told us that as He hung on His cross, He could not see through the gates of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave as a reward for suffering and dying in our place. When He chose to die for us, it was to be goodbye forever. (That is love!). Isaiah tells us that “He hath poured out His soul unto death” like you turn a bottle upside down and drain every drop out of it (53:12, KJV).
But at the end of His suffering on the cross, He was happy, and His face lighted up like the sun when He shouted, “It is finished!” But what made Him so happy was not that He thought He would get some reward in heaven; He had given all that up. What made Him happy was that you and I will live forever! [Psalm 22 makes that clear.]
Honestly, this is a love like nobody else in the world had ever thought of! And this is the secret reason why so many people have wanted to give everything to Jesus!
In these last days God is preparing many people who are learning to understand the love of Christ, which moves them to follow Him. What they have is a new reason or motivation— moved by His love, not moved by fear.
And among those people, there are many children. They are as important as any grownups. You are one, aren’t you?