Relationship Resolutions – Investment

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:19-21.

This passage is just a small section from probably what was Jesus’ most famous sermon, the sermon on the mount. Found in the book of Matthew, starting in chapter 5, the sermon on the mount reads kind of like a greatest hits list of how we should conduct our lives straight from Jesus, Himself. In the portion of scripture we are focusing on, Jesus is giving us wise investment strategies; commanding us not to get caught up in what is temporal and can be taken away, but to invest our treasures in eternity. Before moving on to the next portion of His sermon, Jesus tells His listeners and even us today that where our treasure is, there our heart will be, too. Clearly, Jesus was not just talking about money here. We can’t place our life savings or our financial assets in the safety deposit boxes of heaven so that they’re waiting for us when we get there. So, what are the currencies Jesus refers to as our “treasures” and how can we store them in heaven?

The key to understanding what Jesus means here is in that last line, “there your heart will be, also.” Look at your life. What do you love most? That’s the heart, right? The people and things that are closest and dearest to you. Now, some of the investments you make here will be financial. What are you spending your money on? That’s a good question to start with, but money is really just a tangible, fungible expression of time. When we work, we are paid according to the time we spent on the job, whether it’s hourly or annually. Maybe you make $15 an hour or $100,000 a year; whatever you make, that is the price tag on your time. So, in essence, when you purchase anything, you are really saying this is how much time this product is worth to me. Let’s say you grab a soda at the gas station for a buck fifty and you get paid $15 dollars an hour at your job. Well, that soda just cost you a tenth of an hour or 6 minutes of work. So, every purchase you make is directly translatable to how much time of your limited life are you are willing to spend for it. But, translating money into time opens up the conversation to all of the other things that money can’t buy but can be measured in time. This can help you evaluate and actually put a number to what is most important in your life.

So, what have you been investing yourself in? Where are you spending your money, your time, your focus, your energy? Are they being spent on the people and things you say are actually most important to you or are they being given to lesser things that won’t actually matter? First, are you investing in your relationship with God? We’re not talking about giving tithes and offerings at your last Church service, although that can be a part of it, but if God really is the most important aspect of your life, it should show clearly on the ledger of your life. And, that doesn’t mean spending all of your time reading the Bible and singing hymns even though, again, it definitely should include time spent in God’s Word and in worshipping Him. 1 John 4:20-21 tell us:

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Storing our treasures in heaven doesn’t mean renouncing all earthly investments and relationships, locking ourselves away in a monastery somewhere and becoming a religious hermit. We are not called to be of this world, but we are commanded to be in it. Also, this doesn’t mean that every conversation we have needs to be a pre-planned sermon or every interaction needs to come with an alter call at the end. We are called to love people. To laugh with those who laugh and mourn with those who mourn. We should never shy away from the God ordained opportunities He gives us to be able to go deeper and share our testimony with others, but you’ll find a lot more of those opportunities come when people actually want to spend time with you because you’re actually a good friend.

There are so many distractions vying for our attention and energy. Many times, we pursue temporary things that don’t actually hold lasting value, even in this life, much less in eternity. We can easily fall into the traps of working for a life we never actually live in because we were so drained after work that we just retreat into our phones, our games, our entertainment and isolate from the very people God has placed in our lives to not only be ministers to, but to be ministers in our lives, as well. I’ve said a million times on this channel and I’ll say it a million times more, we were made to be in healthy relationships. We can’t take any of our things with us when we go, but if we are loving and caring for those around us well, God may just use us as the conduit of the gospel to see these people in eternity alongside us.