What You Treasure Matters

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.  But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God (Luke 12:19-21). 

My Story

I am still reading John Piper’s book, When You Don’t Desire God.” It talks about fighting to see Christ Jesus as our treasure. Today, I thought about how that without a new heart and mind (a new heat’s desire within us), we could not see Jesus as beautiful, glorious, nor a treasure. He would never be good enough, desirable enough, or satisfying enough. In fact, our flesh is violently against His Holiness. Imagine that; The God of the universe and Creator of heaven and earth, being despised in our little eyes.

As I thought on this, today, I cried out; and through tears stared at a post-it on my wall. “You saved me for a reason.” A few seconds later, I prayed, You saved me for more than to teach people about their finances [and then a long pause]; but to teach them to treasure you.”

May God be gracious.

Earthly Treasure

Life is not about the accumulation of assets and treasures; the acquisition of more, and more, and more; or bigger, better, and still more. 

For one, our flesh is never satisfied. That’s what the scripture says. One time in our life, we were happy with 2 or 3 pair shoes, then 6 or 7 pair, and now 20-30 pair: some even more than that. Once we were excited about the Nextel phone (though it was more like a walkie talkie), and then the flip phone, then a phone that let you text, and now a full blown minicomputer. Try to revert us back to the Nextel. Leave our cell phone at home and we’ll be late for work, just to go back and get it.

My point? The flesh is never satisfied. It’s in vain that we put all our energy into getting money, gold, jewels, stocks and bonds, houses, and land- thinking it will make us happy. History is filled with very wealthy people who died in misery- some at their own hand. But, even if we lived our whole life indulging in our earthly treasures, we cannot take it with us.

Lesson One

One, stop buying stuff, just to be buying stuff. Stop being broke buying stuff to make you feel good about yourself; so you can keep up with trends and friends; so you can look good before others; so you can fill a 

 void- even if just for a moment. 

All this does habit does is feed your obsession with material-ism and the more you feed it, the broker you’ll be. This does not exercise wisdom and is not reflective of godly stewardship. It does not reflect a heart of someone who finds their treasure in Christ, but who finds their pleasure and treasure in stuff.

That doesn’t mean, as a born-again believer, you can’t have stuff. You absolutely can. It does mean, you have to guard your heart and always be examining your motives by the Word of God. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

 Lesson Two

The accumulation of wealth is not sin; but the condition of your heart may be. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. That’s what the rich man in this parable said to his soul.   

Have you said within yourself, or dreamed of the day you can say within yourself, “I finally made it; I’m good, now?” Except your riches is not indicative of your standing in Christ. Never mind those who preach that gain is godliness; that their wealth is evidence of their great faith and your lack of wealth is evidence of your lack of faith. That’s not scripture. Jesus responded in this parable, Thou fool.  That’s exactly what you/we are when we say this within ourselves So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

 Lesson Three

Be rich towards God; make Christ your treasure.

I say it, but it’s not something you can do on your own. It’s not something you can buy no matter how rich you are. Worse yet, you can’t muster up the will or even desire to find riches in Christ; to see Him as One to be treasured. That only comes by way of a free gift of God. You cannot demand it. You cannot work for it. It’s has to be gifted.

 So, how can you be rich towards God? Seek Him with all your heart and you shall find Him. And if you seek and find, have confidence that it was the Spirit of God working in you, to give you the desire to seek and enabling you to do so and to find. To see Christ as beautiful, glorious, and your one true treasure, can only be a gift.

 Conclusion

Seeing Jesus as your treasure will help you with your material obsessions. He will help reign in the spending addiction; foster a desire to be a godly steward; evoke a generous spirit within you; and transform that heart that only thinks of itself and relishes in taking ease to eat, drink, and be merry.

He will be glorious to you and that will change all of who you are and the zeal you have for life in Him.