Stepping Stones For Victorious Christ Centered Living: Jesus Teachings Regarding Treasures (A)

Important Words Of Jesus On This Matter

Don't store up for yourselves treasures on the Earth, where moths, rats, mice, and roaches destroy, and where thieves can break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where vermin, like rats, mice, and roaches, cannot destroy, and where thieves cannot break in and steal. For where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be.
Matthew 6:19-21

Strange and Unusual Times

We are living in some really strange and unusual times: God's prophecies regarding "The Kings of the East," (China), the "Kings of Persia," and "The "Big Bear of the North," (Russia) are raising up, and surrounding Israel. In these inflationary times, our treasures are being impacted. We are moving ever so quickly towards the day prophesied when a loaf of bread will take a days wages to buy that bread.; therefore, Jesus Holy Words, Teachings & Warnings are extremely important for Christ-Followers. 

 It is my intent to cover these particular "Stepping Stones for Victorious Christ-Centered Living" in this blog and in the next. Why? I am doing so to help us walk on the rock-solid foundation Jesus promised we could walk on as we face storms and struggles in life.

A Matter of The Heart

Jesus says very clearly, at the end of His Words of Wisdom the following:
For where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be.

Earthly Mindset

Indeed, the choices we make regarding these matters clearly reveal our hearts. And God only judges a person's heart.  Think about this: The Lord Jesus is clear that how we focus our giving will reveal your innards. It is really important for us each of us to ask, what do our giving patterns, or our time, talents and treasures in action, reveal about our hearts? This will say a lot about us, and it reveals more about our hearts than we may realize; for example, do we store up treasures that can decay or rust? Do we store up treasures that are this world focused? Do we comfort ourselves by "toys?" Can rats, mice, moths or other vermin eventually dissolve the fruits of our labors? This is not wise, but for many, all too many of us we have the mentality of "Eat drink and be merry because tomorrow we may die." We have the mindset, or heart for, "You only go around once in life, so go for all the gusto you can get." In modern churches, I call this a "Me and Jesus have got a good thing going " view of the world. One day we will discover that mere stuffing ourselves with stuff, will really let us down. It will not bring us peace, and it does not please God.  It does not show we love the Lord. In the next blog we will unpack this a little more.

The Heavenly Heart.

Jesus is crystal clear on how we are to treasure our treasures, and what we are to do with our treasures. He says to store up our treasures in Heaven.  How will we know if we are doing this? First, we will know as we will develop treasures that are focused on sending our rewards ahead to Heaven. We focus on our treasure development on what God in Heaven says pleases Him, and which also will help us reap a positive harvest of what we sew here on Earth. For we most assuredly will reap what we sew. It's not about us. It's about giving so that God can use what we give for The Kingdom of God. It's about seeking first the Kingdom of God in order for everything else to be added back to us again. It's about giving, and trusting that God will do what God promises. "Give and it shall be given to you pressed down shaken together and running over shall come back into your lap."

God DOES Want To Bless His Children

It is for certain, God does want to bless us, and God doesn't mind us having nice things; however, these nice things are given back to us as we first give our things - which really are God's things -- up to God.  We yield our treasures to The Almighty, through His Son, Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as God's grace flows through us, making us into the image of Christ.. We tithe, or we give more than tithe. We lay aside wealth to be sure God's Kingdom work is done. Our treasures should be treated as things over which we have stewardship. These represent, time, talent and treasure on loan from God. We don't own these things. They are loaned to us by our loving Creator. We are to treat treasures  as blessings from our Heavenly Father; however, we must give away from ourselves. We give up ourselves. We give up our time, our talent and our treasures. And remember these things are not really ours. When we do so, we can be certain, no matter what happens, we are walking on Stepping Stones for Victorious Christ Centered Living. We are laying up for ourselves treasure in Heaven.

The Challenges:

Pay Attention To What You are Doing With God's

Time

Talent

Treasure

Receive God's Grace To have a Heavenly Heart and Eternal Mindset.

In Jesus Name

S o J o u r n e r