“For where your treasure is there your heart will be
also.”—Luke 12:34
Have you ever noticed that once you received a long awaited treasure that it’s
not long before the fascination that it once held while you were waiting for it
has lost its luster? Charlotte Bronte, an author and poet, makes this point
quite well in her muse about the human heart’s hidden treasures by writing, “The human heart has hidden treasures, In
secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the
pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed.” Bronte is saying that if the secrets of
the hidden treasure of the heart are exposed then the allure of the treasure
would be broken. Displaying the secrets
of the treasure breaks the attraction and the treasure then looses its appeal. Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount that
the real issue is not the attraction to the hidden treasure, but where our
heart is.
Because there are a lot of things competing for our heart it is pertinent for
us to know where it is and what it is focusing on. Jesus directly addresses the heart by asking
the question, “Where is your heart?” He
says in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is there your heart will be
also.” In posing the question to yourself, “Where is
my treasure?” You will be able to find
where your heart is.
Our enemy, Satan, makes sure that we
are constantly challenged with distractions and things that contend for the
focus of our heart. He knows that our
heart is the control center for life. Mediating
on scriptures such as Proverbs 4:23 help us keep our focus. “Keep
your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” The heart is like a water-well and from it all
the issues of life gush forth. We are
instructed in scripture to guard our hearts and to watch over them so that our
hearts follow persistently after the things of God and are not distracted by
the things of this world.
Jesus used the three examples of moth, rust, and thief in Matthew 6:19-20 to
show how the things we deem as treasures are only temporary disruptions. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves do not break through nor steal.”
Where is your treasure? Are you earthly-minded or
heavenly-minded? Are you investing in
the future eternity to come, or are you investing in the here and now?
Jesus always looks at the heart, “For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.” One of the Ten
Commandments states, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus
20:3). When we set our hearts on the things
of this earth and fall to the temptation of being worldly in our ways, we are
committing idolatry because we are no longer serving God. Rather, we have put our riches above God, and
we are serving them. They have become
our god and our life. Jesus challenges
us, to ask ourselves where our treasure is.
If our treasure is on earth and things of this world, our heart will be
there.
Prayer—Father I ask You to show me
where my heart is focused and right now I repent for the times that I have focused
on the things of the world instead of keeping my eyes upon You, and I ask You
to forgive me. Help me Lord to keep a
single eye upon You, in Jesus Name.
Amen.
