“Treasure” is an interesting word. According to whom you read it could mean anything from money to wealth to affluence to assets to capital, or to possessions,” to list just a few definitions. I think words like values and priorities should be on the list, too.” Whatever the most correct definition might be, however, Jesus says our heart will be where our treasure is.

He says this in the context of passionately calling us to make God the one treasure before whom all other treasures bow. He asks us to truly believe that because the Father has been pleased to give us the kingdom (Luke 12:32) we, in turn, choose to live and move and have our being in the things of the Father. He is calling us to build our lives on the eternal, with the promise that do so is to build our lives on that which cannot be taken from us.

If our hearts will be where our treasure is then it really matters, doesn’t it, where our treasure is? What do we value? Our hearts will be there, and where our hearts are our lives will follow. For what or whom do we live? Each of us has an answer, and the answer is profoundly important to us.

As disciples of Jesus Christ may each of us set apart Christ as Lord of our lives (I Pet. 3:15). There are too many moths and too much rust, and too many thieves in the world to stake our lives on fortunes that have value only in terms of this-world value systems. There is more to life than meets the eye, and Jesus enables us to see that which is more.

Let us take what have been given to us and place it under the authority of the One who is the Giver of “every good and perfect gift” (James 1:16). Let’s give God our time, our talents and our treasures and then trust His faithfulness for both this world and the world to come.