WHERE IS YOUR TREASURE?
Devotion for August 01, 2011
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Luke 12:34.
Jesus teaches us to train our hearts and minds to think more in terms of eternal things than earthly things. We are either laying up treasures on this earth, or we are laying up treasures in Heaven. This is not the natural way for men to live, but it is a part of the transformation that is taking place in the sincere child of God. It only makes sense that we be thus minded. This life is brief, and the older we get, the more real this becomes. However, we are going to live eternally in the place that God is preparing for us. Treasures that we lay up on this earth will remain here after we are gone and will one day perish. Treasures that we lay up in Heaven will last forever.
This important question, "Where is your treasure?" should help guide us in our decisions and priorities. Just prior to this verse, Jesus told a parable about a man that was rich, whose farm was prospering abundantly. He had no room to store the harvest of his land, so his only solution was to build bigger barns. Jesus said this man's reasoning was foolish, because he was going to die and leave it all behind. He then instructed His disciples to live more for the world to come than for this present world. This does not mean that we are not to earn money or provide for our families, or even leave an inheritance to our descendants. These things are not wrong; they are indeed our responsibilities. However, this world is not our priority. Jesus told these followers that if all we do is live for material things, we are no different from the world.
How is it then, that we lay up treasure in Heaven? Jesus instructed the listeners that by giving rather than hoarding, they would be laying up treasures in Heaven. The more we invest our resources in eternal things, the more treasure we will have in Heaven. What things are eternal? The first things we think of are the eternal souls of men, women, boys and girls. As we give to the work of God, as we pray for souls to be saved, as we teach and train others to serve the Lord, and support the work of missions and our local church, we are investing in eternity. And the more of our treasure we have in Heaven, the more our hearts will be there. The reason our hearts are so fixed on this world and on temporal things is because that is where our treasures are. As we obey the Lord and invest in heavenly things, we will find our hearts will be there also.
