“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:34
Jesus loved to use parables to teach people things about the Kingdom of God that would otherwise be hard to understand. One day while He was teaching someone from the crowd yelled out a complaint about an inheritance his brother wasn’t sharing with him. He asked Jesus to tell his brother to divide it with him, (Luke 1212:13).
Jesus refused. In fact, He told the man He was not sent to mediate such matters, (v. 14).
What He did say about the matter, followed by one of His awesome parables is this: “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions,” Luke 12:15.
The parable of the rich fool
“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21
The word treasure is this context means: to make a deposit or store up wealth.
Simply put, treasures are the possessions/ things we acquire that add to our earthly wealth.
Jesus was not trying to say that we cannot have possessions just that the God-kind of life, the real authentic life in Him has nothing to do with how much stuff you possess. It’s not the possessions you have but what you seek first and where you heart is that matters to our LORD.
He told the people not to be anxious or worried about the things that we need to live this life but rather to seek God’s kingdom first and then the things and even the desire of their hearts (and ours) would be added to them, (verses 22-31).
Jesus went on tell them how to use the treasures of this world to gain the real treasures of heaven:
“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,” Luke 12:33.
What Jesus was saying is that it is better to sell what you have in order to give to the poor of this world, those who don’t have the necessities of this life than to hold on them because in so doing you are creating a moneybag or (deposit bag) that will not get old and neither can it be destroyed or stolen away!
You can’t take your possessions with you when you leave this world but you can use your wealth and your means to store up true riches in heaven.
Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his deed.”
The LORD promises to pay us back what we give out to those precious to His heart.
The way you and I become rich toward God is to give Him the first and the best of our treasures. We do this not only by tithing and giving to our local church but giving to the poor, if need be giving up our own desires for more possessions to do so. Even greater blessings come when we learn to love living with less so we can give more and thus store up more treasures in heaven.
Beloved, if you are not giving to the poor find an organization that is and give to them or ask to start a program at your local church.
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