What and Where is Your Treasure?

This post was originally written as a note on Facebook, but the Lord brought it to mind again this morning. It hit me in a fresh way in the midst of some things I have been seeing and learning, so it seemed appropriate to repost it here.

This morning I found myself kind of camped out in the Sermon on The Mount, specifically Matthew 6. Every teaching I have ever heard or read on verses 19-21, "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 moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," has been about money and material things. Which makes sense, since verse 24 goes on to say that we cannot serve two masters, both God and money. But this morning I noticed something that really made me think, especially in light of some things that have been heavy on my heart lately. Rather than looking forward to verse 24, the Holy Spirit took me back to the first part of chapter 6.

The chapter starts out with Jesus talking about our deeds of righteousness, specifically giving to the needy, but the same principle applies to any right act we do. In verse 5, Jesus moves on to prayer, and in verse 16 he talks about fasting. In all of these things, He says not to do them for the attention of men, but in secret, where only God can see. Does this mean that we should never serve where people can see? No. While there are some things we can do anonymously, most acts of meaningful service require actually touching and impacting people. Does it mean we should never pray in public or with other people? No. If that were true, scripture would also not say, as in Matthew 18:19-20, "Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them," and we would not see instances of the early church praying together. Does it mean that no one should know that we are fasting, or what the purpose is? No. Often groups of people will fast together for a specific purpose. And it can also be an opportunity to share with an unbeliever that you are fasting in order to seek the Lord about a particular thing.

The whole idea behind the principles Jesus gives in Matthew 6:1-18 is that our motivation for righteous acts, prayer and fasting should be to please the Lord, grow our relationship with Him, and impact the Kingdom for His glory. Not our own. When we laud ourselves, the things we do well (whether internally or externally), the ways we have grown, the things we give up or avoid that are bad, the amount we pray or read or serve, or the ways we do those things, we get the glory. We get the attention. It is all about what we have done right, what people love or envy about us. When it's all about us, people may admire us, they may want what we have, they may compare themselves to us, but they will have no hope-no way of attaining to the level of right living they think we have achieved.

What Jesus wants is a heart motivation that serves and prays and sacrifices and loves because of what He has done for us, to make Him smile, out of a response to His love. He wants our words to reflect the glory of God, the work He has done in us and through us. He should get the attention, because He is the one who truly deserves it. Our words, whether written or spoken, should draw attention, should draw people, to Him. We need to be clear that anything we have, everything we experience, every area of change has been and is unattainable without the love, grace and power of Jesus Christ through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. When they know that the source of our abundant life is Him, they will be aware that they can have it, too. 

So I think it is very interesting that this whole section about not looking for the praise of men is immediately followed by verses 19-21, which reminds us not to store up treasures on earth, but in heaven. When we seek the approval of men, we find that it is always fleeting. Someone else will come along and do something better or different or it will just be fresher on the minds of people. We become addicted to that approval. It is our treasure. We want more and more, so we do more and more to seek it out. And it's voice is lessened by the negative voices and reactions in the world as well. So we begin to seek louder voices of approval to drown out the disappointments. It is a vicious cycle. And our short-sighted, fleshly need for worldly approval robs us of the greater reward of a God in heaven, who loves us more deeply than we could ever imagine, who sees everything we do outside of ourselves, every bit of progress inside our hearts, minds and spirits, and who has a stockpile of rewards waiting for us in heaven. Nothing can destroy those rewards. No one can outshine us or take them away. But the more we seek approval here on earth, the less reward there will be in heaven, because we will have done everything we do for the approval of man rather than God, and our motivation will not have been to bring Him glory. And that, my friends, is what He wants, what He deserves, and what He rewards.