Your Master, Your Money & You 05

Where is your treasure? Usually when we hear the word “treasure” we think of a pirate’s hoard stashed below the surface of the ocean. But we all have treasures. And sometimes, the definition of that treasure changes.

When I was a teenager, I had a collection of albums I treasured. If my house had burned down, I would have wept over losing them. They were, quite literally, the focus of my life and probably my worship. I owned over 200 (now classic!) and pristine records. I had imports, bootlegs, hard-to-locate recordings that I had spent years collecting. When I became a believer, I knew that this collection occupied an inappropriate place in my heart. So I sold the collection… for $75!

Our definition of treasure can take on many forms as we get older; the security of our retirement funds, our house, a vehicle or sporting equipment. The question becomes this: If you lost it all today, what would it do to you? The reality is we will lose it all one day.

John Wesley was once invited to the property of a wealthy Christian man. Wesley and the property owner rode all day and still didn’t see the extent of the land owner’s holdings. As they sat down that evening for dinner, the man asked Wesley what he thought of all that he had seen that day. Wesley quietly looked at the man and said, “I think that you will have a very hard time leaving it all behind.”

Jesus said, “Store up treasures for yourselves in Heaven.” Jesus was not against accumulating treasure. He was counseling that we be careful not to “treasure” it up in the wrong place. There is only one security that we can have in this life; that which we have invested in eternity. Everything else will one day be dissolved by decay or burned by fire (2 Peter 3).

The location of our treasure is important. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our heart’s desire occupies our attention and affection. If that is all focused on this life and in material things, we will one day be pried away from it when death comes. But if our treasure and our hearts are in heavenly locations… then, as Paul said, “Death is gain.”

Store up heavenly treasures. Make sure you keep attention focused on the truly important, though now invisible, realities. For where your treasure is stored, your heart will be right there with it.


FOR MEDITATION: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21

FOR REFLECTION: Search your heart today. Does it pursue heavenly, eternal things… or earthly? What steps could you take today to more fully invest yourself in Heaven?

 

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