Treasures In Heaven
Homecoming, Part 5
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Home is where the heart is…
It’s a saying I’ve heard all my life. The saying is meant to be symbolic of an emotional state, meaning you have a deep love for where you are, even if it’s not your actual home. But for me, there’s truth in this statement in a realistic way.
In my home are the people I love most in this world, my husband and two children — my heart. My passion (heart) is in my home for another reason, too… I’ve invested so much of my time and energy into our house. I love a good project, and I’ve spent countless hours renovating and building to improve where we live, to make it a place where my family feels the most comfortable and happiest in the world, to make it our home.
But the work is never finished. As soon as I complete a project, I’m on to the next one, or something breaks and needs to be fixed. Our house is ten years old — right at the age where things start tearing up. And styles and trends are constantly changing. Updating, renovating, repairing... the projects never end!
On Sunday, Pastor Tim continued our “Homecoming” series by talking about the importance of investing in eternity.
He said that so many of us live for the here and now, investing in and caring for earthly things that won’t last… things in this world break, wear out, get destroyed. Instead, we should give of ourselves to something better — eternal things that will endure forever.
Matthew 6:19-21 says:
It’s a saying I’ve heard all my life. The saying is meant to be symbolic of an emotional state, meaning you have a deep love for where you are, even if it’s not your actual home. But for me, there’s truth in this statement in a realistic way.
In my home are the people I love most in this world, my husband and two children — my heart. My passion (heart) is in my home for another reason, too… I’ve invested so much of my time and energy into our house. I love a good project, and I’ve spent countless hours renovating and building to improve where we live, to make it a place where my family feels the most comfortable and happiest in the world, to make it our home.
But the work is never finished. As soon as I complete a project, I’m on to the next one, or something breaks and needs to be fixed. Our house is ten years old — right at the age where things start tearing up. And styles and trends are constantly changing. Updating, renovating, repairing... the projects never end!
On Sunday, Pastor Tim continued our “Homecoming” series by talking about the importance of investing in eternity.
He said that so many of us live for the here and now, investing in and caring for earthly things that won’t last… things in this world break, wear out, get destroyed. Instead, we should give of ourselves to something better — eternal things that will endure forever.
Matthew 6:19-21 says:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
By investing so much of myself in my earthly home, I’m missing opportunities to store up treasures in heaven.
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take care of our possessions. We should treat everything we have as a gift from God. And I don’t believe that spending time on hobbies that make us happy is bad. God wants us to have joy! But when we care too much about our earthly possessions, or invest all of our time in our hobbies and our own joy, that’s when we miss out on opportunities to invest in eternity — reading the Word, praying, volunteering, helping those in need — these are all things we can do to store up treasures in heaven, and those are the only treasures that will matter in the end… the only ones that will last forever.
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take care of our possessions. We should treat everything we have as a gift from God. And I don’t believe that spending time on hobbies that make us happy is bad. God wants us to have joy! But when we care too much about our earthly possessions, or invest all of our time in our hobbies and our own joy, that’s when we miss out on opportunities to invest in eternity — reading the Word, praying, volunteering, helping those in need — these are all things we can do to store up treasures in heaven, and those are the only treasures that will matter in the end… the only ones that will last forever.
When we care too much about our earthly possessions, we miss out on investing in eternity.
Free time is hard to come by in this busy world we live in. Our society values more — more stuff, better vacations, promotions and higher pay, bigger houses and nicer cars. We spend so much of our time and energy climbing a ladder to more. And when we do get that rare free time, we tend to spend it on more things that don’t really matter. But the ladder to more never ends… it never reaches high enough to satisfy our souls.
If you have some free time this week, and something is sitting on the shelf that you’ve been meaning to get to, I challenge you to put it off for a little longer, and use that free time to invest in your eternity, whether it be spending an hour with your Heavenly Father, in prayer or in His Word, serving your neighbor, visiting a sick friend, or doing something with your family where you are completely present with them.
And next week, do it again… start making a habit of using at least some of your free time investing in your eternity, storing up treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin cannot destroy.
If you have some free time this week, and something is sitting on the shelf that you’ve been meaning to get to, I challenge you to put it off for a little longer, and use that free time to invest in your eternity, whether it be spending an hour with your Heavenly Father, in prayer or in His Word, serving your neighbor, visiting a sick friend, or doing something with your family where you are completely present with them.
And next week, do it again… start making a habit of using at least some of your free time investing in your eternity, storing up treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin cannot destroy.
Author: Melissa Parker, Communications Specialist
Posted in Devotional
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