Once you come to realize that all material possessions and earthly things will burn away, it changes your perspective. The world thinks that this earthly life is the sum of our existence and that everything within it is the sum of our reward. Based on that understanding, everything we do on earth matters in a way that has us pursue as much gain, reward and satisfaction as we can because one day, it will all come to an end.
God wants you to maximize your potential on earth. He seeks to do this by incentivizing what you do. He has laid out incentives for you to aim for during this time of kingdom stewardship. It’s only when you, as a kingdom steward, rightly position yourself in God’s kingdom program through the choices you make that rewards will be made available to you. These make up some of the key abundant life benefits that Jesus offers to His followers (John 10:10).
Not long ago, a friend of mine told me he bought a new home. Now I obviously didn’t tell him this, but the truth is that my friend didn’t really own “his” house. That’s because the title to the home he claimed to own was actually in the possession of the bank. And it’s not until he paid off his mortgage that he would actually own the house.