Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Daily Gospel Devotional: March 16

Matthew 6:19-21 / Luke 12:33-34…

Home is where the heart is…

It is foolish to make money the focus of your life, because even if you have a mountain of money, the mountain is never high enough (Ecclesiastes 5:10). A wise man restrains his desire (Proverbs 23:4-5). Setting your heart on personal fortune will lead to personal failure in the long run (Psalm 62:10 / Proverbs 11:28 / Ecclesiastes 5:13-14). You don’t know when you are going to die, and we are to be mindful of God more than our things and desires (Luke 12:16-21).

This is not an indictment of wealth; this is about the futility of keeping in storage things that should be in circulation (1 Timothy 6:8-10, 17-19). Saving is good stewardship, but hoarding is not holy. We are here to be channels for the resources God gives us (Ephesians 4:28), to be a conduit of His blessings, not a dead end. Of course, greed and dishonest gain make the matter even worse (Proverbs 28:6 / James 5:1-3). We are supposed to store up, not for our standard of living but for our standard of giving (1 Corinthians 16:2).

We can store it up in heaven by spreading it around on earth. Our time and our talent are also part of our treasure that we are to use for the needs of people (Romans 12:13 / 2 Corinthians 8-9 / James 1:27 / 1 John 3:16-17), the ministers of the church (1 Corinthians 9:14 / Galatians 6:6 / 1 Timothy 5:17-18), and the advancement of the kingdom (Philippians 4:10-20).

Jesus is not just telling us some things; He is teaching us some things. If you want your heart to go after God, then send your treasure His way. Your heart follows along where your valuables go. We are all interested in our investments. If your heart is for heaven, your valuables will be headed that way, too. That’s where the most secure bank in the universe is, and the rates of return are out of this world (1 Peter 1:4).

Jesus said that where your treasure is, that is where your heart is. Home is where the heart is, the question is, where is your home?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

9 comments:

Even So... said...

In the course of one year we will read
• Every Verse
• Every Passage
• Every Gospel

We welcome your comments. We are not looking to be copying and pasting previous material...we are coming at this with a fresh look, each day, and going with whatever we see. We can send you a copy of the reading schedule (primesoul@hotmail.com). You can check www.voiceofvision.org for each day’s reading, or go to www.voiceofvision.blogspot.com to leave a comment. God bless you as you join in the walk with us...

Even So... said...

Protect your heart by protecting your treasure by giving it to God...

Even So... said...

Guard your heart (Proverbs 4:23) by guarding your treasure by letting God be the gatekeeper...

Even So... said...

The Bible tells us to guard our hearts, and our heart is where our treasure is. So if we are to guard our heart, we must guard our treasure, but Jesus tells us that we are not good guards. So if we want our treasure to be guarded so that our heart is guarded, then we must give God our treasure, because Jesus says that He is the good guard.

Even So... said...

The only way to guard your heart is to give your treasure to God.

The only way you will consistently give all of yuor your treasure to God is to make God your treasure.

MrsEvenSo... said...

Excellent post with excellent comments!

L.Maxson said...

What a wounderful message. It gets
you to do some real heavy soul searching and praying. These things I have been doing for a while, this message just made it deeper and more meaningful.
LM

Anonymous said...

That is a lot to digest, but it is certainly good food, thanks.

Michelle said...

I won't say convicting...but definitely a little bit humbling. So easily I know I personally get lost on personal treasures and too easily loose focus on the right things.