My Treasure My Heart
My Treasure My Heart
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
God has always been consistent with his goal for our lives. In the Old Testament, his first command was, “You shall have no other gods before me.” In the New Testament the most important commandment is, “Love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” The ultimate goal for us believers is to make God our one and only and to love him with everything that we have. Just like God who demonstrated how important we are to him and how much he loves us when he gave his only son to die in our place. The goal for every believer is to learn to love God as much as he loved us, with what we have and who we are. Simple yet not easy because God has a fierce competitor who is competing for our hearts and incidentally it’s not the devil it’s our treasures.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:21 NIV
A group of desperate and worried people gathered to hear Jesus speak his sermon on the mount. These people were desperate because they were living under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. They were worried because they did not know how they were going to make ends meet. They hoped that Jesus would serve as their ticket to freedom and financial stability. However, Jesus went on to tell them something that left them totally baffled. “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Jesus’ teaching appeared to be both irrelevant and insensitive to their needs. The people had forgotten that the reason why they were in such difficult circumstances was because God had blessed them in the past with many treasures. As time passed, instead of growing closer to God they drew further from him. This is the never-ending story in the Old Testament, God would bless the people and they would say “thanks and see you later.” They loved their treasures more than they loved God. Sadly the same is true for many today.
Your treasures, whether little or much can serve to either distance your heart from God or draw your heart closer to him. Pause for a second to think about Jesus’ words if you really want to know where your heart is or how much of it belongs to God. “For where you treasure is there your heart will be also.” Jesus is telling us that our hearts will follow our treasures, and not that our treasures will follow our hearts. Your feelings are not an indicator that will tell you where your treasures are. This is an amazing principle. If we really want God to have more of our hearts all we have to do is to surrender more and more of our treasures to him. If your goal is wealth you are not going to like what Jesus said. However, if your goal is to love God with all your heart, then you are going to totally embrace what Jesus said. Your treasures will either distance you from God or you can voluntarily use them as a vehicle to surrender more and more of your heart to him.
Questions
- What is your goal as a believer?
- How much of your heart do you feel belongs to God?
- If you were to measure it by the use of your treasures, how much of your heart belongs to God?
- How can your treasures distance you from God?
- How can you use your treasures to draw closer to God?
Prayer
Dear God, today I surrender my heart to you and I also surrender my treasures, I give myself away entirely to you to be used for your purposes. Take my heart and mold me into something useful and valuable to your kingdom. Amen
