Matthew 6:21 – “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.”
This morning’s devotion talked about a guy named William Randolph Hearst (yea Hearst Castle). What I didn’t know was he was a collector of “stuff”, and boy did he have a lot of expensive treasures and unique items. Just looking a a few pictures of the castle itself can tell you he definitely would be considered “rich”. The unfortunate thing for Mr. Hearst is his heart was set on earthly things, and after a lifetime of collecting items he has passed and now probably wishes he would have seen past money and earthly treasures and sought a fulfilling treasure that he would have gained in heaven.
Now, what would it take for Mr. Hearst and so many people who are ‘addicted’ to money to begin to store treasures up in heaven? Matthew 6: 24 says: “You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Interesting how ‘money’ is capitalized…) Jesus also clearly tells us in Matthew 19:2324: “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” So, the Bible is pretty clear that being rich means nothing, and you won’t enter the kingdom of heaven because you serve Money. Not only that, it owns you, you are in this endless cycle of wanting more, the things you only fill the void inside you a little, and you try hard to fill it with more things. If you truly want to fill that void, there is only one thing that can completely fill it, and that is the TRANSFORMING LOVE of God. This devotional and appropriately titled blog entry focuses on our hearts… Once our hearts have been transformed by the love of God, Money becomes money, and we begin to seek more of God and the treasures He has in store for us in heaven! 😀
For myself, I admit that I did have a problem with trying store up earthly treasures, and I still have wants in my life today. The fact that technology always seems to amaze me doesn’t help at all either… I’ll even go as far to justify those wants and say I’ll use them for the glory of God, but like the verse above said, I cannot serve both God and Money. However, I think the past 2 months, God’s transformed my heart to become more aligned with His desires and will. I am starting to see those heavenly treasures and earthly things seem like trash now. I’m so excited to see where He is taking all of this and really what He is about to do in my life!