By David ReayMonday 3 Dec 2018LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
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)
We believe so many lies. We are seduced by promises that buying this or that will turn our life around. We think that the more we have and the more we earn the greater our happiness and security will be. This is not surprising given that we live in a materialistic world which seems only able to focus on the things we can see and touch and possess.
In the absence of anything else, we are bound to believe in the promises of materialism. Which is the belief that the essence of our life is tied up with tangible goods and items. Billions of dollars of marketing reinforces this belief.
Jesus calls it for the lie it is. We are not to conclude that Jesus is condemning material possessions as such. He is challenging the attitude we have to them: that they are what ultimately matters. They do matter, they can bring benefits. But they are passing, and they don’t address our most basic human needs.
These needs are tied up with relating to our creator, of living for something or someone beyond ourselves. We may enjoy what this life on earth has to offer while it lasts, but in the end we were made for the new heavens and new earth. Not a place of wispy clouds and angelic wings, but a place where material things are not the only things or the main things.
Material things, good as they are, can’t fill the God-shaped blank inside each of us.
Blessings
David Reay