“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, ESV)
I have friends who are thrift store and garage sale junkies. They love the quest to find hidden treasure among . . . well . . . the junk. I’ve seldom been successful with such shopping. I look around and only see sad, weary-looking items, not the gems others claim to find. One was happy to find a designer purse. Another bought some books and later discovered cash tucked between the pages. I buy an old book and find dust, not treasure.
A popular saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” What is treasure to you may not appeal to me at all. That’s our individuality expressing itself. I own some special, and possibly valuable, figurines, several china teapots and teacups, and some special pottery pieces. I enjoy them, but I don’t “treasure” them. Life will go on if they are broken.
Have you ever stopped to consider what you treasure most? What do you really value?
Luke 12 tells the story of a rich man whose fields produced in abundance. It came to the point where he determined he must pull down his old barns and build larger new ones to accommodate all he had accumulated. Feeling pride in the success of his labor, he resolved it was time to eat, drink, and be merry. He never had the opportunity to enjoy the riches he had acquired because he died that night. He had spent his time accumulating the materialistic riches of this world but ignored the eternal. He chose the wrong treasures. Verse 21 warns us of the danger of this. “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (ESV).
I could write many things about the importance of seeking the right treasures, those that last eternally, but the apostle Paul summed it up well in I Timothy 6:17-19.
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (ESV)
The rich man in the Luke 12 parable based his life on materialism and uncertain riches, but the child of God chooses the treasure that provides a good foundation for eternal life. That is the best treasure of all.
Comments are closed.