Treasure

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I was reading the book of Matthew after the Life of Christ seminar held last week. Then I came to Matthew 6:19-21. This passage is a bit interesting and I decided to meditate a little bit on this passage. Jesus talked about storing up treasures not on earth but in heaven and once we do that, the implication is that our heart will be with heaven also. The question lies with us is why didn't he say that our treasure will be where our heart is? I believe this is simply impossible to our sinful heart. Think about it, how many times would people say that they are surrendered to God but insisted in doing their own things? We raise our hands in church, but once after service, it's doing their own things all over again. It is obvious that our heart lies with where our most important thing is.

While studying this particular passage, I came across this excerpt:

Can we claim not to love wealth more than our brothers and sisters in Christ when we see them hurting and do not sacrifice what should matter to us less than their need? While many of us pursue status symbols that television suggests are "necessities," evangelical ministries to the poor claim that forty thousand people die of starvation and malnutrition daily. That means roughly twenty-seven a minute, twenty of whom are children under five years old. (This represents a loss of life roughly equivalent to the first atom bomb being dropped again-every three days.) Wherever possible, people should earn their own wages and not become dependent on charity. But children under five cannot "pull themselves up by their bootstraps," nor can our brothers and sisters in drought- and famine-stricken areas. Those who say, "For the sake of everyone it is better to let the weak die off," are social Darwinists, not Christians; Christians are called to serve the weak.

It is really something for us to think about. Where exactly is our treasure? In fact, when Jesus put treasure before heart, He did make a point there. What kind of treasure are we storing up in our lives? What is the most important thing in our lives now? Do we even dare to 'open our hearts up' and take a look if what we say is congruent to what we are inside?

I went for an interview at 'Centic' last Friday. Although in the end nothing came out of that interview and I didn't want anything to come out of that interview also, I was left thinking something that I thought I had it resolved long ago. I asked myself what is it that I really want to do in my life? Earn big money? That sounds interesting. Be somebody? That's where we are talking. But can all these things last? And so God revealed to me today that it is not what I want to do, but who I really want to be in my life. That is the more important question.

In any case, what does this have to do with treasure here. The crux is this, at some point in our lives, we need to make a conscious decision to evaluate what God really wants us to be and do. At the end of the day, we need to be honest with ourselves and ask whether are we storing up the treasure in heaven or on earth and we need to be honest if we want to continue to be doing so.