Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

I’ve been reading through the Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew.

Today’s section was titled “Lay Up Your Treasures in Heaven” (Mt. 6:19-24).

When I read the titled I went ahead and prayed, “Lord, teach me to do this better, with holiness.”

I was kind of taken with the idea that earthly treasures rust, get destroyed and can be stolen. They have expiration dates! Even can goods expire. There is no preserving earthly treasures. It’s like a house built on sand, gone with the storm. Psalm 119: 37 says, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.”

Heavenly treasures cannot rust, be destroyed or stolen. This is a trivial example, which serves my point, but I had a Garmin once. It was a Christmas gift and I really loved it! I liked the assurance of having it around. I liked that I programmed it to have a British accent. It was funny when my husband would changed the language to German. Links ab biegen means turn left in German. Anyway, not sure what happened to my precious (remember Gollum in the Lord of the Rings) Garmin. My best guess is that it fell out of the car. Gone! I prayed that God would restore it back to me, and I’ve got nothing. I miss my Garmin. But, heavenly treasures will never fall out of my car. They are built on a wise foundation that cannot be washed away.

I don’t regret one penny I’ve given away because the Lord told me to. I do regret the dollars wasted on coffee. I don’t regret the amount of time I’ve spent in prayer. I do regret the hours I’ve wasted on terrible movies, oh if I could have those hours back. I don’t regret the amount of money I’ve spent on music lessons, nor the hours spent in practice. I do regret singing for any other reason than God. I don’t regret spending time with family regardless of what we were doing. I do regret wasted emotions, time, energy , money, etc... pursuing things that do not satisfy, that are fading.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (vs.21).

O my. How can I love the Lord with all my heart if my treasure lays somewhere else?

I asked myself these questions this morning in the full assurance I will get better at laying up treasures in heaven, because He is a good leader.

• Can my treasures be stolen or destroyed?
• What are the things that have my heart?