September 19, 2022
Daily Devotion:
“Where Your Heart Is, There Your Treasure... “
Luke 12:33-34
New International Version
33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
There's no end to how we can rationalize away this passage. Surely Jesus Wasn't speaking literally, otherwise we would be too poor to share! (That Logic didn't deter those first-century Christians who, immediately After Pentecost, literally sold their possessions.) Or surely it's sufficient if we have hearts that would be willing to sell everything if some drastic need ever arose (please, God, don't let that happen!). For most of us, it would be remarkable enough simply to reduce our level of materialism by half, or a third, or even a tenth! How glibly we speak of “disposable income," the money we have left over after rent or mortgages, utilities, groceries, and other "necessary" items. What Part of that “disposable income" goes to meet the needs of the poor, instead of expensive vacations, big-boy toys, and fashion items? We sometimes say “He wears his heart on his sleeve" about someone who let's his emotions show for all the world to see. On a deeper spiritual level, we also wear our hearts on our designer sleeves, and expensive cars, and upmarket homes. Through whatever possessions are our personal “treasures," even those of us with moderate incomes are declaring our excessive materialism loudly and clearly to a watching world. As Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also"...fully on display. But it is when we reverse the order of Jesus’ words that the real indictment hits home: For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also. Want to know how spiritually healthy our hearts are? Just Look at our checkbooks and credit card statements.
The disturbing question is: What does my incessant addiction to materialism say about my heart?
