Your Heart Will Follow Your Treasure
Today’s Passages – Luke 12 – 13; (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)
(Second Milers also read – Psalms 146 – 150; Proverbs 31)
Scripture Memory for October – Matthew 5:1 – 16
Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 92:1
Read previous posts from this passage: “Thou Fool”; and “Put Away Your Ax”
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” – (Luke 12:34)
This is one of those passages that is often misunderstood. When we read the phrase, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”, we often think the exact opposite of what it is actually saying. For years, I thought this verse was saying that we will invest in the things that we love. However, the opposite is actually the truth. This verse is plainly teaching that we will love what we invest in. There is a difference. Our hearts will actually follow what we spend our time, toil, talents, and treasure on; but the investment precedes the heart.
I love my wife, children, and my grandson, Jaxon. I must be honest: I love them more than I do other people’s children and grandchildren. I want to be around them, and I want to do things for them. I not only love them, I like them alot. But why is that? It is because I have invested my life into them, and my heart has followed my investment. I love my church. I have given the last 11 years of my life laboring to make it a church that is effective in fulfilling the Great Commission. Again, my heart has followed my investment.
This principle will revolutionize our relationship with God if we will allow it to. Many times, we fail to obey and fulfill the will of God for our lives, because we do not desire to. Our hearts are simply not in it. However, if we understand this principle, we know that if we invest our time and obedience to the will of God today, our hearts (our desire) will be wrapped up in it tomorrow. I remember when I was in Bible College down in Texas. I was given a bus route in Texarkana, Texas and Arkansas. My job was to visit the route on Saturdays, trying to minister to and encourage the riders we already had, and then to invite new riders on to the bus so we could bring them to church the following day. On Sunday, we would leave early in the morning, pick the kids up, bring them to church, and then feed them at our own expense on the way home. We would also bring many of the kids back to church for the Sunday Night service. To be honest, I was not too thrilled with giving up my entire weekend for this ministry. It was a tremendous investment in time, energy, and resources. To be perfectly honest with you, at first, I didn’t even like the kids, let alone love them. But as time went on, I developed a bond with these children, and a love for them. In fact, even when I was offered an easier, more lucrative ministry in my senior year, I turned it down. My heart had followed my investment. I developed a love for the ministry that God had given me. What began as pure obedience developed into real enjoyment.
Maybe God is asking you to do something that your flesh simply does not want to do. May I encourage you to give your life to the will of God, and in time your heart will be right there with you.
Posted in Thoughts from Luke by Phil Erickson with no comments yet.