Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; ... for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
What will matter at the end of our lives? Steve Job, the founder of Apple, who is estimated to have been worth $10.2 billion dollars said these words when before he passed away: "At this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death." Here is the man who had everything and anything that money could buy, but confessed that it was an meaningless, empty, and chasing after the wind.
Jesus plainly told us that we should beware of trying to lay up treasures here on earth. Life does not consist in the abundance of the things we possess. We miss out on that because the world continues to tell us that life does consist in having more is what we need. We all get caught in that trap of comparing ourselves and our possessions with others. And we spend so much time working hard to get and to possess these things that we miss out on the true treasures of life.
Let's say this again. There is nothing wrong with being rich or having a lot of things. The wrongness happens when that is where our heart is at. When all our life is spent getting more and building more and having more, our focus of life will be on things that have no eternal value. That breaks God's heart. God doesn't tell us things because He wants to control our lives and not have any fun. God tells us things so that we can have the abundant life. Jesus said that He came so that we might have life and life more abundantly. (John 10:10) Right before that Jesus talked about the enemy coming to steal from us. We don't realize it, but he uses stuff and things to blind us and captivate us to our fleshly desires to have more. But in the end we realize that those are not important.
Focusing on the eternal value of things will help us to see the way God sees. When we begin to think about eternity, then we can hold loosely to the things that we have here because we recognize that what is held in high value by this world is not what God thinks is great. God has already said it. Love Him and love others. We will never regret loving God and others more. Let's change our perspective to live in view of eternity and to lay for ourselves treasures in heaven by loving others more--that is the true treasure of life.
Blessings to you!
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