Monday, February 15, 2010

Where's Your Treasure?

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” ~~ Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

Last month we moved across the state of Texas. In preparation for the move, we cleaned out the attic and storage shed.

What did we discover? Trash! What we put away to keep for later became obsolete, worn out, and utterly useless garbage.

It reminded me of the scripture reference above. Why did I buy so much junk? It may be fun for a little while, but I must realize it is not to keep forever. The things we buy on this earth will wear out and decay. Or especially in the area of technology, become obsolete.

Cameras that were state of the art digital cameras in the 1990’s, we can no longer use as 3 ¼ in floppy disks are not available today. But yet I kept it. For what?

The scripture said not to store up treasures on earth. I caught a glimpse of why we’re not to store up treasures on earth. They do wear out, collect dust and clutter our homes. We took several trailer loads of “stored up treasures” to the garbage dump before we moved.

If I take an honest assessment of the unpacked boxes in the garage, more garbage is probably stored up.

But what am I to do? As I pondered the answer “but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. . .” what does that mean? Several thoughts come to my mind, but the first being that I shouldn’t become too attached to my stuff.

Then I thought of some practical solutions to avoid storing up too much stuff:

  • Once worn out or broken, throw it away. Things we’ve kept saying we’ll fix it later never get fixed.
  • Give away an item once I’m no longer using it so someone else can enjoy it before it wears out or becomes obsolete
  • Not put so much emphasis on buying stuff, but giving more to advance the work of the kingdom of God. There are many charitable organizations that count on free will contributions to function. Perhaps when I want to make an impulse purchase, I can deny myself that item and send the money to charity.

What about you? What ideas do you have to share about how to store up treasure in heaven and not on earth?


1 gracious comments:

KrippledWarrior said...

I believe you covered them pretty well. But I like your #3 best. It preempts the others.