May 24

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

—MATTHEW 6:21

We are all motivated by a sense of vision and purpose which centers in one of two spheres; the material or spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus alludes to this when He talks about four specific areas He calls ‘acts of righteousness’. They are giving, praying, fasting and possessing of material things. In all of them, there is the recurring theme of reward, but human reward or divine reward? Jesus said in Matthew, 6:

Verse 19: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.”

Verse 21: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Verse 22: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.”

Verse 24: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

In looking closely at these verses, we clearly see what begins as our treasure in verse 19 occupies our heart in verse 21, becomes our vision in verse 22, and then our master in verse 24. To ask what is our treasure, where is our heart, what is our vision and what is our master is, in effect, asking the same question. It isn’t about our treasure or vision, but about our master, and Jesus states we cannot serve two.

The free will we are given is actually limited to one thing….who is our master? From there on, everything we do is a logical explanation of what is the mastering principle of our lives. It’s either temporal or it’s eternal, self-centered or God-centered, earthly or heavenly, but it cannot be both.

Society today holds to the belief that a person’s status and measurement of success is directly related to their reputation and material wealth, but society has it backwards. We cannot put the pursuit of money, prestige and power before the pursuit of God. Mixing of the material and spiritual as common objectives and goals simply won’t work. We either serve God or ourselves, and the issue is not how much we have, but what our responsibilities are in light of what we do have. Though we live in the midst of the temporal, a mature Christian has the eternal at heart.

PRAYER: Dear Father, there is nothing guaranteed in this life except that which comes from You. Help me to always have my mind set on the eternal and the things that come from You. Thank You, Lord.

TO REFLECT UPON: Am I living my life for the here and now or with eternity in mind?