Where Is Your Treasure?
Jesus had some poignant things to say about our hearts:
Luke 16:15 - He said to them, "You are the ones
who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows
your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable
in God's sight.
Mat 6:19-21 - Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where
thieves break in and steal. But store up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not
destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.
Where is your treasure? What do you value? This world values
prestige and money. It values power. It treasures education
and accomplishments. And these things are not bad of course,
in themselves; they are evil only if they are our motivating
factor, if we put them above God, above the people in our
lives. Sometimes, even we Christians get caught up in this
system. We become overly impressed with credentials, we
choose jobs because of money. (I'm talking about extremes of
course; we all need money!) God's value system is different
from the world's. David says, "We make 'value' judgments.... the world's values or God's... its a choice
we make.." What God treasures is our heart, our love
for Him and each other, our service of Him and our
fellowman. When Christ chose disciples, He did not choose
celebrities. And Paul's devoted fellow workers were probably
not on the invitation list of the parties of the upper crust
of society, those our world esteems as
"important."
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 - Consider your own call,
brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human
standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble
birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to
shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame
the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the
world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that
are, so that no one might boast in the presence of
God. God wants us to treasure His Kingdom, and our
families and friends.
Matthew 6:33 - But strive first for the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well.
I believe it was Barbara Bush that said (this may not be an
exact quote, but it gets to the heart of it) that when we
get to the end of this earthly life, we will never say
"Gee I wish I had spent more time pursuing
success." What is often said is something like this:
"I wish I had spent more time playing with my children.
Someone has said that an effective means of determining what we
treasure, is to look at our checkbook entries over the last
month. How much was spent to advance the Kingdom, to help
others? How much was spent on our pleasures? We need to keep
this in balance.
Dear Father, please help us to
align our priorities with Yours. Help us to treasure what
you treasure. Help us to keep the balance that You want for
us, in the way we spend time and money. In Jesus' name,
amen.
-Pastor
Chris
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