Where are your treasures?

Matthew 6:19-34

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21 (NKJV)

The problem with storing up treasures on earth is that they are so temporary, so easily destroyed. A spark of fire, a theft, a downturn in the stock market, and the things we have stored up for the future can be gone in a flash. We outgrow or wear out many of the things we thought we just had to have. The Rev. Ron Dunn pointed out that “the treasures of yesterday are the trash of today.” There is only one place to keep treasures that are safe and lasting and that is in heaven. God Himself guards our eternal treasures and keeps them for us.

There is a story about a man who died and went to heaven. As St. Peter was showing him around, he saw a mansion that belonged to a friend of his. The man thought if that friend had such a beautiful home, his place must be a knock-out. Imagine his disappointment when they stopped at a little shack, and St. Peter told the man this was his new home. Seeing the man’s disappointment, St. Peter said, “We did the best we could with the materials you sent up.”

It is true that “you can’t take it with you”, but it is also true that you can send it on ahead.

God is concerned about our treasures because He knows our hearts will be wherever our treasures are, and He is always concerned about our hearts. Accumulating wealth and material possessions can take over our thoughts and our affections and actually become our god. Jesus warned us in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Are your treasures temporal and temporary or eternal and secure? The clue to the answer to that question is this one: where is your heart?

Father, may we treasure the things that are spiritual and eternal rather than the things that are worldly and temporary. Amen.