Day 30 of 49
It is said that if you want to know what a person values, look at their calendar and checkbook. How we spend our time and money do reveal what we find important…what we truly treasure.
Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Lk 12:31–34.
Forrest Fenn created a treasure hunt, saying that he had buried a bronze chest filled with gold and gems somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Many people tried to find it, my daughter included. There is something fun about a treasure hunt. We think that finding a treasure or winning the lottery will solve all our problems.
He reported it has been found in case you were going to look for it.
Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God in parables. He explained some to his disciples, but mostly he painted word pictures. He made it clear that we are to seek the Kingdom, not the stuff of this world.
I love the phrase in Luke 12:32, “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” He is not sending us on a wild goose chase, he wants us to find it.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Mt 13:44–46.
These two parables tell us the value of the Kingdom.
Many people in the first century buried valuables on their land. Banks didn’t exist. If it stayed in the house, it could be stolen. If the person who buried it died and had not revealed where it was buried, a descendant could be unaware of his valuable asset.
Pearls and other gems served as currency in the first century. Dollar bills didn’t exist and coins were heavy to carry around. (I think the Templar’s developed the banking system that allowed a person to carry a note that could be exchanged for money.)
The first man stumbled on the treasure. The merchant searched for the pearl. It doesn’t matter how we come to know about the treasure, it’s what we do next.
Both men sold everything they had in order to buy it.
How much do we value the Kingdom of God? Is it worth the time to study the Word and to pray each day? Can we take time to encourage someone who is struggling? Are we willing to give money, clothes or other items to the poor?
Our core values determine how we speak and what we do. If we are focused on the temporal assets on earth, we miss out on the heavenly perspective. Every thing we have or don’t have will fade away. Our words and actions…those have eternal significance.
Lord, thank you for reminding me that the things on earth have no lasting value. Help me to spend my time and money wisely, with my eyes on eternity.
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:7–14.
TRICIA LATHROP 