The words you speak, decisions you make, and actions you take paint a picture of what’s important to you. From hobbies to habits, purchases to priorities, the details of our lives reveal the conditions of our hearts.
The Bible talks a lot about this, and I have been especially mindful of it recently.
Jesus preached repeatedly on money and possessions, transcending the physical to unpack spiritual issues of the heart.
One of His sermons is recorded in Matthew.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
– 6:19-21
He goes on.
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
– 24
Inevitably, I get bogged down in earthy matters of little importance at the cost of spiritual riches and heavenly treasure. How easy it is to be choked out, as Jesus illustrated in a parable.
“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed … seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain … They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”
– Mark 4:3-4, 7, 18-19
John warns of this trap as well.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
– 1 John 2:15-17
The world opposes God, just like the flesh opposes the Spirit (Galatians 5:17).
James confirms, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (4:4).
What I find in these Scriptures are warnings to my heart against temptation toward the trivial and temporal. I must fix my eyes heavenward.
Word of the Week: Gaze. Where I look, in that direction I will go. Colossians 3:2 calls us to action: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
Why?
God’s Provision: “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
And that is our reward.
Abby
