Matthew 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” NKJV

How are you doing on ‘laying up the treasure’?  Do you have plenty of cattle in the bank and money out West?  How’s the house and the cars, the  neighborhood and the school district; the investment portfolio and the country club; the weekends skiing and the vacations in Europe?  I don’t know about you, but while I don’t have all those things, I certainly take spells of aspiring to them.

Sometimes I focus an inordinate amount of attention on taking care of my stuff, our stuff, our activities, and our image in the community.  Problem is, sometimes we focus so much attention of that stuff that “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, [distract us from God] and make us unfruitful.” Matt 13:22

Sometimes I focus attention on those other treasures, the ones Jesus calls ‘treasures in heaven’.  Spending time alone with God.  Talking to people about what God is doing in my life, sharing what He can do for me (and them) if we’ll just get out of the way and let him.  Spending an evening with my wife and kids, doing nothing in particular.  Taking care of the widow women and the orphans and the people under the bridges.  When I’m focused in the right direction, those are the true ‘affairs of my heart’.  Sometimes the Spirit is moving so much it feels like my heart is fixin’ to burst out of my chest.  You’ve probably had that feeling a time or two yourself.

Therein lies the distinction between ‘treasures on earth’ and ‘treasures in heaven’.  When we spend time each day with God, thinking and reading about Him, talking to Him, listening to Him, trusting Him and obeying Him, our lives are changed from ‘glory unto glory’.  We don’t always realize what’s happening in the beginning, but if we continue to do it day by day, we notice that little things begin to change, both in us and around us, and we begin to see what the real treasures are and what those treasures really mean in our lives.  We start to notice that our behavior is changing; our words are changing; we notice that it is becoming easier and easier to be “kind, tenderhearted and forgiving, like God is to us.”  Then it begins to snowball, and we start to notice we are becoming more and more like Jesus, every day.