GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 29 ~ ~ Matthew 6:21 ~ ~ “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Continuing with a chapter from Ron Rhode’s book, “The Wonder of Heaven”.  Chapter:  “Looking Toward Eternity”

I recently came across a parable intended to teach that while unbelievers typically interpret all human suffering as something that “just happens”, believers can see suffering as something that can help prepare us for the afterlife, and therefore has a good purpose, as guided by God. 

It is a parable that imagines twins – a brother and sister – talking to each other in their mother’s womb.  It goes like this:

The sister said to the brother, “I believe there is life after birth.”

Her brother protested vehemently, “No, no, this is all there is.  This is a dark and cozy place, and we have nothing else to do but to cling to the cord that feeds us.”

The little girl insisted, “There must be something more than this dark place.  There must be something else, a place with light where there is freedom to move.”  Still, she could not convince her twin brother.

After some silence, the sister said hesitantly, “I have something else to say, and I’m afraid you won’t believe that, either, but I think there is a mother.”

Her brother became furious.  “A mother!!!!”  he shouted.  “What are you talking about?  I have never seen a mother, and neither have you.  Who put that idea in your head?  As I told you, this place is all we have.  Why do you always want more?  This is not such a bad place, after all.  We have all we need, so let’s be content.”

The sister was quite overwhelmed by her brother’s response and for a while didn’t dare say anything more.  But she couldn’t let go of her thoughts, and since she had only her twin brother to speak to, she finally said, “Don’t you feel these squeezes every once in a while?  They’re quite unpleasant and sometimes even painful.”

“Yes,” he answered.  “What’s special about that?”

“Well,” the sister said, “I think that these squeezes are there to get us ready for another place, much more beautiful than this, where we will see our mother face-to-face.  Don’t you think that’s exciting?”

The brother didn’t answer.  He was fed up with the foolish talk of his sister and felt that the best thing would be simply to ignore her and hope that she would leave him alone.

What a tragedy that so many in our world today mimic the behavior of the hard-hearted brother in regard to what the Bible says about heaven and the afterlife.  But for those of us, like the sister, who are believers, and who maintain a top-down perspective, the hard knocks of life – those “pressures” – are tempered by the glorious future that awaits us.

A top-down perspective also helps us to have a balanced perspective on money and wealth.    John MacArthur is correct when he says our goals “should not include the accumulation of possessions here.  Our real wealth – our eternal reward – is in heaven (Matthew 5:12)  Why, then, do so many Christians spend a lifetime staying busier than a bee, seeking to accumulate material wealth?  They often do so to the detriment of spending quality time with family and others.  Ah, my friend, we must be cautious not to be deceived by the enticing allurements of the world which are passing away.

A key passage on the “top-down” perspective is Matthew 6:19-34 – (written out in full below)

Here Jesus informs us that anxiety will not change anything.  Certainly it will not increase the length of our lives (verse 27).  Our goal should therefore be to store up treasures in heaven.  This will help rid our lives of anxiety.  Make note of this principle:

OUR HEARTS WILL COINCIDE WITH THE PLACEMENT OF OUR TREASURES.

If we are usually anxious over temporal problems, our hearts are likely not centered on what should properly be our first love,  if we have perpetual anxiety, there is a good possibility that we are more occupied with transient realities than Jesus intended.  So here we have a ready-made test by which we can assess the depths of our beliefs.

Our goal should not only be to attain but to MAINTAIN a “top-down” perspective.  This perspective is a radical love of God that places Him first and foremost in every aspect of our lives.  We are to concentrate our concerns on the eternal, not the temporal (2 Corinthians 4:18)  and when we do this, God has promised to meet all our earthly needs as part of the package (Matthew 6:33)

WHAT COULD BE BETTER?

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2 Corinthians 4:18

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Matthew 5:12

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 6:19-34

 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;   but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.     But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

  Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?   Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?    Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

  So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;    and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.   Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?   “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’     For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.    But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.    Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Colossians 3:1

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

Colossians 3:2

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

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