“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
The first question to ask is what is your treasure? Make God your treasure, and your heart will follow suit. I often times get sidetracked on the road that leads to looking like a good Christian. I try to make it look like my heart is in the right place, by doing good things, the things I should do. This is a road that’s easy to get onto, but not so easy to realize you’ve made a wrong turn somewhere. The turn off is very subtle.
This verse is a test to see which road you are on. Where do you find your treasure? On earth, where everything deals with how you look and act? Or in heaven, with a real God who wants to be your only treasure?
When I find myself on the “look like a good Christian” path, how I confront sin is different. If I try to keep myself from sin on my own strength, trying to look “good”, I might succeed for a time; I can seem to succeed for a long time. Eventually will power starts to wear.
In Acts 5, a Pharisee named Gamaliel speaks to the religious council with some powerful words, “if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it – lest you even be found to fight against God.”
In the same way, if our efforts are of our own strength, they may last for a time, but they will come to nothing.
I’ve heard this said and said it to my self many times, but I have always found myself veering back onto the path that leads to ruin. I have found that recognizing the wrong path is only the first step. I need to go back to the straight path. Once again I try to do it myself and fail! It’s circular logic. I think that I can stay off of this “look like a good Christian” path by just realizing that it exists, and that I shouldn’t go that way. Where does God come into the equation?
The deepest issue here goes back to the first question, where is your treasure? There is your heart. Father, I pray that you would be my treasure.
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