The Delayed Gratification Zone
For believers, the time we are living in is a kind of delayed gratification zone.
If, throughout the course of our careers, we drive older cars, forgo new car payments, and sock the money away in secure savings that earn compound interest, we will end up with a nice nest egg. If we forgo marriage right out of high school and wait until we have a trade or college degree, we will be better able to provide for a family. If we learn to play guitar before we busk on a street corner, we will draw a larger crowd. That’s called practicing delayed gratification, one of the most valuable traits any of us can develop. But that’s not what the world tells us we should do.
Workmates may tell us, “Not spending more each month than you can pay off is unrealistic.” Relatives may say, “People don’t pay a 10th of their income to churches. They just want you to think that.” The media will say, “Waiting for sex until after marriage is both foolish and impossible.”
Everyone in the world is telling us to eat, drink, and be merry, but Jesus has called us to lay up our treasures in heaven, not here on earth. (Matthew 6:19-21) The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” Paul's understanding of Christianity was quite different from what we so often hear today.
My point is this. From the moment we received Jesus as our Lord, we entered a delayed-gratification zone. As Paul wrote:
Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. - Colossians 3:23-24 NLT
As you yield to Jesus’ love and walk with Him, you will find that accumulating things in this life is just clutter, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21 ESV)