Treasures in Heaven
“Don’t 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 neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
I recently heard one of the best sermons I’d heard in a while. This summer my pastor has been preaching on Matthew 5-7 (Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount), and this week, he was talking about money, and boy, was I kindly convicted by Jesus on the subject.
As I’ve come into adulthood and had to learn to manage my own money, it’s been repeatedly hard for me to submit this area of my life over to God. So often I find myself afraid and fretting away on how little I have or how I can save more to protect and provide for myself. This practice is literally the opposite of what Jesus tells his followers in Matthew 6!
Instead of striving so hard to provide for myself, I’m reminded that God promises to take care of us (Matthew 6:25-34). Instead of putting my eyes on my finances and fretting about the numbers in my bank account, I’m challenged to focus more on Jesus and His provision in my life.
It may not be finances for you, but I’m willing to bet there is an area of your life that you tend to try and store up earthly treasures from. Is it relationships? Popularity? Security? Your physical appearance? Jesus asks us to flip the script, from What can I do to keep this (money, image, relationship, etc.) so I feel secure? to How can I use what God has given me to glorify Him and love others more?
By changing the script, we get to enter in to our true treasure, the one that really lasts. When I’m trying to protect myself, I’m usually insecure and panicky; when I’m focused more on trusting Jesus, I find my heart is much more tender and I am able to really see and love others.
Let’s really look at our lives and see where we are storing up our treasures. Where we’re focused on earthly things, I pray we have the courage to lay them down and instead learn more how to trust Jesus, and where we are focused on our heavenly treasures, I pray that God gives us the grace to continue to trust His plan and portion for our lives. Like the scripture says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” and as we grow with Jesus, we have more and more opportunity to let our hearts dwell where He is.