What Do You Treasure?

While reading my daily devotional, Christine Caine was explaining the verse of the day, Matthew 6:21. Something she said caught my attention. She said, “If you want to know where your heart lies, check your bank statement. Where your money goes will tell you what you treasure?” I thought for a minute, “Hmm. Where does the majority of my money go?” I must say that it mostly goes towards things for my family. Isn’t that what I am supposed to do as a parent? Take care of my family. Yes. However, I quickly recognized areas that I needed to be a better steward of and use more of my resources to be a blessing to others. Matthew 6:21 states, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” What do we value friends? What do we spend most of our time doing? Whatever those things may be, they can become an idol in our lives if we aren’t careful.

When I think about those two questions in regards to Jesus and what He spent His life doing, I certainly have a lot of work to do. He spent His entire life serving others and fulfilling His purpose. In John 5:19, we see Jesus talking to the disciples about His motivation. The verse reads: “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” What was His motivation? The Father. Jesus’ life of purpose and service was driven by what He saw the Father do. Therefore, His heart was set on heavenly things and not earthly things. Are we heavenly minded but no earthly good? Shouldn’t we heavenly minded while doing earthly good? If our hearts aren’t on the work of the kingdom while here on earth, then our hearts are in the wrong places.

Let us examine and redirect our hearts so our treasures will lie in the things of God. Let our hearts reflect His. How will we know? We will know when our hearts are in sync with His love and service. We will know when we are using our resources and blessings to touch the lives of others. We will know when we see the least of these as ourselves and as our Father sees them.

During this pandemic, it has been easy for us to turn our eyes inward and focus on ourselves. Some have even started hoarding materials for fear of the future and resources being limited. There have been many distractions that have drawn our minds and sometimes our hearts away from God. However, when I think about the example of Jesus and all that He has done for us, I can’t help but wonder. How would His “bank statement” look? There is a saying, “Jesus, paid it all.” I envision the transactions being names of all of us for whom He died. Instead of tangible things, I can see names like John, Nia, Heidi, Joel, Fred, Hiram, Jeanne, David, Stephen, Rachael, and so many more. That statement would be infinite in length and last throughout eternity. The amount by each name would be 0.00 because we had a debt we could not pay. Yet, Jesus took the cost of all our sin upon Himself.

Why? Because we are His treasure, His heart. Likewise, He wants to be our treasure, our hearts.

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