“Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; 6:21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.â€
“Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’ 6:32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 6:33 But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. 6:34 Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.†Matthew 6:19-21, 31-34 (WEB)
The next verses after the last passage speaks very firmly and clearly about judging so I won’t be doing that to anyone! However, I am asking these verses to shine their light on me.
Jesus said not to collect, buy, or generally put a high priority on things that decay. These are things that can be stolen. It is easy to to identify items like 3000 square foot houses or $50,000 cars, buying clothes and shoes that do not fit in an overflowing closet or taking a fully comp’d trip to Las Vegas. God has pruned those things from my ‘want’ personality but there is more to be trimmed in my life.
How tightly do I hold on to my spouse and my children? Do I live in fear that they will be injured or killed? Does that manifest in the level of my concern when they are at risk? How inflexible am I about the ‘essentials’ in my life? How do I think about income vs. working my Kingdom job? Am I willing to allow God to set the priorities in my life even when that may mean giving up some essentials in order to take up my cross and following Jesus? Are some specific scenarios playing in your mind like it is in mine?
And Jesus brings His words like an arrow to “Trust Me, Jody. Trust me.†In all the scenarios and questions that run through my mind and heart, it comes down to making a decision based on how much I trust God for the details when His path is clear but not easy. Do I raise my eyes and Jesus to show me what He sees, thinking less of myself and more about serving others.
As you are considering my words today, I invite you to also check out the words of a friend in a podcast at http://podcast.energion.com/?p=183 . He is Greg May who also has a blog: Greg’s Fishing Hole. Let us meet together and be encouraged that our Jesus loves us and is in our today and tomorrow.
