September 15th, 2024

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

God must be our treasure, and this is because he deserves it and he will guide us in a world where it is so easy to get lost and find false treasures that mean nothing once we pass from this world. If God has gifted you the ability to realize how important it is to look towards God, then we can see that it is the objective truth that the Lord is the only true treasure. He created us in pure love, with the capability of free will, and we betrayed him and did not follow his perfect way. From here he could have destroyed us or brought us our rightfully deserved punishment, but he simply permitted us to continue on earth, assisting us along the way. Even the people who hate God and live to disobey him and deny His existence need to show gratitude in the fact that God gave them a life where they can experience emotion, have senses and build relationships with other people.
The fact that God has done this for us all despite our rebellious ways shows His truly magical grace. Even then, He went further with it and out of his lovely essense, has chosen some of us in a way we do not fully understand (though it involves his loving and perfect character) to commit our lives to Him and because of His son Christ, has somehow allowed some of us the gift of eternal life because of our faith having nothing to do with our own actions or ways (as we have rotted to the core).
You can appear to live in every christian way, but only God really knows what is in your heart and if the faith and commitment for Him is true, noone else can know your true relationship with God. You can't and have done nothing for your salvation, only God has given you that and there is no point in boasting of so. Jesus commonly speaks of the kind of attitude that comes with a lifestyle of faith, and how the actions that come out of that true faith will reflect back on you in heaven. Because Christ Jesus has forgiven us, we must forgive others, because Christ fulfilled the law fully, we must do everything we can to live by this moral law. This is what Jesus refers to by building up our treasure in heaven, the expression of a God-given heart of faith and how that effects the way we live.
With the faith, we can entirely trust that this what God has defined as objectively good and is not foolproof. You do not have to worry. Put your money, your possessions, your friends and family below the importance and priority of God, this is what the faith is, not that these things are not important (obviously) but God is holy holy holy. We must even put ourselves below God and become slaves to Christ, love God not for your own self gain but because God is so amazing that He deserves your love and lifelong commitment. We must admit that God's will and way is better than what we may want, we must see that God is the only true treasure, as we see easily resort to temporary and shallow worldly treasures. We need His help always. The mere things of this world are mostly result of a broken viral world, corrupted by sin and degredation. Even the things that come from God's wonderful being and will, like our children, our happiness, still come from God, therefore he prevails as the treasure.
I know that I often struggle with the worries of what others may think when I want to pull my Bible out and read or pray in public, and I feel a great guilt for this. I must constantly remind myself that prioritizing my reputation over my faith at certain times reveals my sin and ego perfectly. Our repuatations and the pursuit of it is a worldly treasure that will mean nothing when we die, what will matter is living in the way God wants us to (the one we will spend eternity with or without). I want to always try and push myself to be more open about the faith, to show others the beauty of Christ and God's word, to prove to myself that worldly things I once saw as so important have been overruled by the Spirit. We are so spoiled by God's grace, whether we have been given the gift of faith or not.
Dear lord, your perfection is profound, your grace is out of this world and I do not deserve any of the wonderful things you have given to us as sinners. I am very sorry for the sins I have commited by not seeing you as the true treasure and prioritizing worldly things. I ask all these things in the name of Christ Jesus, amen.