“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 neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”
Matthew 6:19-20
I’m currently following the 40 day plan set out by Rick Warren in his book ‘The Purpose Driven Life’, the aim of which is to find the answer to the question ‘What am I here for?’, in line with God’s purpose for us collectively and individually. Today’s chapter was entitled ‘Made to last forever’.
I’m not going to go into detail about what the book says, but instead share what God has been speaking into my spirit this morning. The passage above from Matthew 6 literally sprang into my mind as I was reading the chapter – which I guess isn’t that amazing as it one of the more well-known verses. The thing that surprised me the most was that I understood it on a level I never had before.
I had previously understood it to be a word of guidance about making sure that you didn’t put your focus too much on worldly life and lose focus on God because it is God who saves you, not the accumulation of things. I also took it to be a reminder of how your faith and relationship with God is yours and yours alone and cannot be taken by another…unless you allow it to by losing focus.
Now, both of these are true but they are not the entire story. The Bible says:
‘He has made everything beautiful in its own time. Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so he cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end.’
Ecclesiastes 3:11
We have eternity in our hearts, we live with that mindset – which is why we find the end of life so difficult a concept to reconcile. Yet, God has also ensured that we don’t know what He has done throughout all of His existence, perhaps because our earthly frame cannot comprehend it, or possibly because He chooses to keep an epistemic distance (as John Hick calls it), which means that He chooses to keep a distance that allows US to make the decision to follow Him and have a relationship with Him, He doesn’t make it so that we cannot deny His existence and thus HAVE to believe in Him. That is not the essence of a relationship.
(Imagine that you are told that you have to marry someone, that they love you, are perfect for you and so you are to marry. Does that make you love the person in the truest sense? Does that make a satisfying relationship to the one who loves you? No. There needs to be a choice by the recipient to seek that other person and learn to love them, in order for a relationship to be true…that’s what epistemic distance is on about – not quite as theologucally worded as Hick might, but the meaning all the same!)
The Bible further expounds on this idea when in 2 Corinthians 5:1 Paul writes:
‘When this tent we live in – our body here on earth – is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he Himself has made, which will last forever.’
Notice the choice of words for our earthly bodies and heavenly bodies (after death) – tent and house. Which is more permanent? The latter of course! This really encouraged me this morning as I understood more that what ever physical, emotional, financial pain we may be in, it really is only temporary – which gives me a totally new perspective. Futher to this, there is one further word change when Paul speaks of the house that God has made Himself; the house becomes a home. It is not a building that remains, but a place that we will settle into and be happy and secure in, with God.
Returning to the verse in Matt 6, what I grasped today is that when it speaks of not storing up treasures on earth, it is illuminating the fact that we are here for a short time, that all the ‘things’ that we enjoy apart from God are not bringing us any true eternal joy. That’s not to say that we should stop living and simply read our Bibles, but that those things shouldn’t be our focus, God should be. What God has for us in eternity with Him is beyond anything we could imagine – that is the true treasure.
In Phillipians 3:7 Paul talks of his realisation that all the things he once thought were important are worthless because of what Christ has done. Paul is putting into words what I have discovered today. And it has changed, and will continue to change, the lanscape of my immediate world. Rick Warren describes this as ‘living in the light of eternity’, where my focus is not on personal gain, monetary gain nor accumulation of ‘stuff’, but on spiritual gain, relationship with God and accumulation of God’s grace and gifts. Our lives on earth are a mere blink of an eye in eternity, yet they influence how our eternity is lived…our lives are important, and what we do is important because it directly effects us and those around us, in eternity – not just the here and now.
At the end of each chapter in the book it gives you a question to consider. Today’s said:
Since I was made to last forever, what is the one thing I should stop doing and the one thing I should start doing today?’
My instant answer (I try not to overthink them) was 1) stop fearing the future…God is working on this with me, read more about fear here 2) Start talking more about God to others who don’t know Him so that they too can begin to store up treasures in heaven.
Just one last point…in verse 21 of Matt 6 it says ‘for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’. I want my love, focus and heart to be with God, not with the newest gadget that soon fades into obscurity, or the drive to get more – there is never enough for a person with that drive, whereas God is enough for He is everything.
Wow! So much from two initial verses. Thank you God.
godshandreaching 