Buried Treasure
Peyton Johnston
October 24th, 2017
Matthew 6:21
According to legend, pirates would take their wealth and bury it in an obscure place for safe-keeping with only a cryptic treasure map to reveal the location of its hiding place. But in reality, pirates were much less frugal than most people think. Instead of turning a hole in the ground into a savings account, history reveals that they very rarely hid their treasure away, but rather squandered their plunder on deplorable things.
These careless pirates had it all wrong. You see, the bible says: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The treasure this verse is speaking about isn’t necessarily gold and precious jewels – it’s simply whatever you have placed your value on. Many make the mistake of idolizing things that are a hindrance to their life. Sometimes, it’s a sinful matter that corrupts a holy life. But more often than not, it’s the love of the subtle, trivial things that brings unbalance to a follower of Jesus.
So if your heart follows your treasure like the scripture says, when you put an emphasis on unstable things, you’ll find that your heart will rise and fall with with the uncertainty of this world. But if you set your value on the Lord – our solid rock (Psalm 71:3) – the highs and lows of life may shake you, but you’ll never crumble – you’ll still stand firm.
Choosing how you spend your time, money, and emotions is very telling of where your treasure is stored.
It’s important to keep yourself in check and ask yourself:
Where have you buried your treasure? Where is your value placed? Where is your heart rooted? Are you keeping your treasure in a safe and sure place? Or are you throwing it away on meaningless idols?
Pray: “Lord, I place my treasure in Your kingdom. I set my value not in the issues of this world, but on eternal matters. Help me to keep from wasting my time and priorities on the things that will hurt my walk with You.”