During small group in the fourth grade Kids Church, I asked my group of girls a series of true and false questions. The lesson was about not just knowing God’s Word but doing what it says. The questions were designed to provoke conversation about knowing the truth and following it. One true/false question pertained to stop signs. Do you really have to stop completely when you approach one? One girl said very confidently that you do not actually have to stop all the way. Her dad always just pauses, looks, and then goes. Oh, my! Busted!
Everyone who has a driver’s license knows you are supposed to come to a full and complete stop. However, just like this girl’s father, many of us don’t. We may do it part way, only pausing to look for traffic, or we might just ignore it all together.
Knowing what we are supposed to do and executing it consistently, even when it doesn’t always seem necessary, is a challenge.
In Matthew 6:19-20 Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” We know this verse. It has been preached over and over again. We know Jesus is telling us we can’t take our money with us when we die. Therefore, we should not make our lives revolve around accumulating earthly riches and material possessions.
Tucked away in the “what not to do” of those verses is what we should do—store up treasures in heaven.
What exactly does that mean? It means we can use the resources we have now for eternal good. While the full and complete picture of what “treasures in heaven” will look like is a bit vague in Scripture, we can be assured that it is going to be good. In an article by Got Questions Ministry about storing up treasure in heaven they state, “We can serve the Lord wholeheartedly, knowing that God is the one keeping score, and His reward will be abundantly gracious.”
Again, for most of us, this is not new information. The real question is are we doing it?
Life often becomes filled with routine…back and forth to school, back and forth to work, taking kids to and from practice/rehearsal, babysitting grandkids, making food for the family. The list goes on and on. One day seems to roll into the next, and we start the same routines all over. By nature, we are creatures of habit. It takes intentional effort to break away from what we have always done.
My challenge to us today is to take time to assess our heavenly store houses.
Are we making regular deposits? When was the last time we made a large investment in the Kingdom? Does our heavenly retirement fund match or even exceed our physical one? Are we putting as many personal resources—time, money, and talent—into building our eternal assets as we do our personal ones?
Tithing regularly, sponsoring a child, and donating to a missionary are all great investments in the Kingdom. They can also become routine and even mundane. As the automatic payments that fit nicely in our budgets leave our accounts, they can become comfortable and safe, not requiring a stretching faith. Along with these steady investments we always need to be on the lookout for something more.
Those who are wealthiest here on earth don’t only do things that are automatic. They are always watching for new investment opportunities, and are even willing to take risks with their resources to get the big reward. The more wealth they build, the more they turn around and reinvest. Are we willing to do the same with our physical resources for the growth of the Kingdom? What kind of treasures will we add to our heavenly storehouse when we say yes to using a week of vacation to go on a mission trip? What if we said no to something we usually do so that we can say yes to a serving opportunity we don’t normally have time for? How could your talents in woodworking, baking, sewing, gardening, or crafting become part of storing up treasures in heaven?
