SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/23/2020 12:24 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “A Single Treasure”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
6:19-21
Message of the verses: “19 Amass not for
yourselves treasure upon the earth, where moths and rust may consume it, or
thieves breaking in may steal it. 20 But provide for yourselves treasure in
heaven, where are neither moths nor rust to consume it, nor thieves to break in
and steal it. 21 For where your treasure is, your heart will also be.”
We
begin with an important quote from John MacArthur: “The key to Jesus’ warning here is ‘yourselves.’ When we accumulate possessions simply for our
own sakes—whether to hoard or to spend selfishly and extravagantly—those possessions
become idols.
“It
is possible that both our ‘treasures upon earth’ and our ‘treasures in heaven’
can involve money and other material things.
Possessions that are wisely, lovingly, willingly, and generously used
for kingdom purposes can be a means of accumulating heavenly possessions. When they are hoarded and stored, however,
they not only become a spiritual hindrance but are subject to loss through ‘moth,
rust,’ and ‘thieves.’” I think that one
of the things that we are learning from this section is that it really does not
matter how much we are worth, but what we do with what the Lord has entrusted
us with. I have heard it well said that
there are some people who say that once they get enough money that they will
then start tithing and doing things for the Lord. My thoughts about this are that “enough” will
never happen. If you don’t make a habit
of giving when things are lean you won’t do it when you have more.
During
the times when Jesus walked on the earth having a lot of clothes was a sign of
being very rich as sometimes the rich would use gold thread to show how wealthy
they were. Most of their clothes were
made of wool and so even the rich had difficulty protecting their clothes from
insects.
Another
form of riches in that time was to have a lot of grain and we see this in the
parable that Jesus told about the rich farmer.
MacArthur writes “Brdsis (‘rust’)
literally means ‘an eating,’ and is translated with that meaning everywhere in
the New Testament but here (see Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 8:4, ‘eating’; 2 Cor. 9:10, ‘food’;
and Heb. 12:16, ‘meal’). It seems best
to take the same meaning here, in reference to grain that is eaten by rats,
mice, worms, and insects.”
It
doesn’t matter a lot what kind of wealth we have there is always the chance
that ‘thieves’ will break in and steal it.
The people of Jesus’ day would hide their wealth in the ground away from
the house, and perhaps in a field as we see in Matthew 13:44 “"The
kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and
hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and
buys that field.” MacArthur writes “Break
in’ is literally ‘dig through,’ and could refer to digging through the mud
walls of a house or digging up the dirt in a field.”
Nothing
that we own is completely safe from either destruction or from someone stealing
it and even if we keep things perfectly safe during out times on earth we are
certainly separated from them at our deaths.
It is probably a true statement that many earthly millionaires here on
earth who are believers will be paupers in heaven, and the opposite is also
true as paupers on earth will be heavenly millionaires.
It
seems to me that Jesus is teaching that we can have a heavenly bank account and
it depends on how we use our finances here on earth as we can send things ahead
so when we get to heaven then we will have heavenly funds. Jesus tells us that “neither moth nor rust
destroys, and…thieves do not break in or steal.” Heavenly security is the only absolute
security.
Jesus
then points out that a person’s most cherished possessions and his deepest
motives and his desires are inseparable as He says “for where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also.” They
will either be in one of two places, and is on earth or in heaven. “You adulteresses, do you not know that
friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to
be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
I
will close this SD with a quote from John MacArthur that goes along with a
quote that I have used many times from Warren Wiersbe “The problem with the
heart is the heart of every problem.” “As
always, the heart must be right first.
In fact, if the heart is right, everything else in life falls into its
proper place. The person who is right
with the Lord will be generous and happy in his giving to the Lord’s work. By the same token, a person who is covetous,
self-indulgent, and stingy has good reason to question his relationship with
the Lord.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful for what I am learning and also
remembering what I have learned about this very important subject of giving,
and doing it the way that the Lord wants me to.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I continue to pray for the survival of our
country as without the mercy of God we are going to be in big trouble. I pray that He will give great wisdom to our
President and those who are fighting for integrity in our election.
12/23/2020 1:02 PM
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