Heart’s Treasure?

Matthew 6:21

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses one of our primary concerns, which is, “If I really trust God with everything I have, how do I know I won’t run out of everything I need and just die?” Jesus responds to our deep-seated fear by talking about how we can live worry-free, like the birds in the sky and the flowers in the field. Jesus’s followers can be generous with what we have because we know that God will take care of us just as he takes care of creation.

In Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus ends with these words: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms” (Luke 12:32-33a). Being generous with our possessions is simply a matter of expressing our faith that God will take care of us, whereas worry and anxiety about possessions reveal a profound lack of trust in the God who made us and loves us.

My treasure is to be used not for myself or for advancing my own agendas but for good. Jesus makes the uncomfortable observation that the way one uses money and “stores up treasure” is a straightforward revelation of the orientation of one’s heart, because “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also . . . No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Jesus is warning us that greed is dangerous. Yet we often ignore the warnings, thinking they don’t apply to us. “I want to make money,” we think, “as long as I do it honestly and attend church, it can’t hurt.” But Jesus is serious when he says we can’t serve two masters.

Reflection Questions

Read Matthew 6:21-33 again. Ask the Spirit to reveal to you where your real treasure is. To what or whom is your heart most attached? In what or whom is your confidence and trust? What is God asking you to surrender to him today?