By David ReayFriday 3 Jun 2016LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Matthew 6:19-24
19-21 “Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
22-23 “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
24 “You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both. (THE MESSAGE)
It is so easy to ‘dabble’ in Christianity. To make some attempt to follow Jesus and yet all the time be focussed on wealth or success or even ‘ministry’. Split allegiances can never lead to satisfaction. We won’t get great satisfaction out of following Jesus or great satisfaction out of embracing those other material goals. We end up stuck between competing loyalties, neither enjoying the very real pleasures of material pursuits or the even deeper pleasures of wholehearted devotion to Jesus.
Jesus says that if we don’t have our eyes on him, our lives shrink. What we focus on determines how we live. Our preoccupations shape and reshape our lives. If my preoccupation is money, then I will inevitably become greedy and egocentric. And furthermore, this preoccupation must inevitably crumble because as the old saying goes, “you can’t take it with you”.
Of course we need to add that money itself is not evil, and we cannot realistically ignore material concerns. Focussing on Jesus doesn’t mean we abandon the world around us. But the point is one of preoccupation. Our preoccupations tell us what sorts of people we are and what sort of life we live. Putting Jesus first doesn’t mean neglecting everything else. It simply means those other things find their true place. It simply means that other ‘treasures’ can’t compare with him.
Blessings
David Reay