In Matthew 6:21, we read a very well-known verse:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
There’s three interesting quotes that I found that give some light on this verse. Here are each of them, listed below:
“A man’s real interests lie where his ‘treasures’ are.”
—SDA Bible Commentary Vol. 7 pg. 350
“If your treasure is in heaven, your heart will be there. You will talk of heaven, eternal life, the immortal crown. If you lay up your treasure on earth, you will be talking of earthly things, worrying about losses and gains. “
—Testimonies to the Church Vol. 2 pg. 59
“Delight prevents forgetfulness: the mind will run upon that which the heart delighteth in; and the heart is where the treasure is.”
–Thomas Manton
What can be taken from these quotes? I guess the one lesson that can be taken is this:
What you FOCUS on most is what you VALUE most.
What do I mean by that? Well, Paul writes in Philippians 3:14 —
“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.“
In the original Greek, the word press means “to run after.” Normally when you run after something, your EYES FOCUS on the thing you’re running after. For Paul, his focus was on Jesus–which was Who he valued (see Philippians 3:7-8). But what about me? What about you? Are we like Paul, who focused on Christ so much He became the One he valued most? Or do we allow our eyes to focus so much on the things of this world, on our own selfishness, that it becomes our treasure?
Maybe this is what you struggle with. You have trouble keeping your eyes on Jesus; maybe you don’t even know HOW to keep your eyes on Jesus. Or you have no clue WHAT that even MEANS. You know deep in your heart that these earthly treasures you’re focusing on don’t have any true worth–but you just can’t stop looking at them and admiring them! What do you do when you feel your heart is putting more value on this world than on God?
The answer is found in John 1:29: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” In modern Bible translations, the word “look” is used in place of “behold.” So, we need to look to Jesus to help us stop focusing on our worldly selfishness and start focusing on His heavenly love!
But HOW?
One way is found in The Desire of Ages pg. 439:
“When we see Jesus, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, working to save the lost, slighted, scorned, derided, driven from city to city till His mission was accomplished; when we behold Him in Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood, and on the cross dying in agony,—when we see this, self will no longer clamor to be recognized. Looking unto Jesus, we shall be ashamed of our coldness, our lethargy, our self-seeking.”
How does this apply to us, as Adventist Christian teens, on a practical level? We need to spend some time simply THINKING about all the pain and suffering Christ went though on our behalf. After all, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18 that “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” And Ellen White also says that “By thus contemplating His teachings and sufferings, and the infinite sacrifice made by Him for the redemption of the race, we may strengthen our faith, quicken our love, and become more deeply imbued with the spirit which sustained our Saviour………. Everything noble and generous in man will respond to the contemplation of Christ upon the cross.” [Gospel Workers 1892 pg. 246]
But our mortal, weak, carnal natures don’t FEEL like Christ’s crucifixion really “touches” us. One reason is simply because our eyes, our minds, and our hearts have focused so much on the temporal we’re blind to the eternal. Spiritual things don’t “click” with our hearts because they’ve placed too much value on the common.
What our blind hearts need is an experience. A deep experience with God’s sacrificing love. But ONLY GOD can HELP us have such an experience. Today, our prayer can simply be–
May this always be both your heart’s and my heart’s loudest cry to the Throne-room of Grace. Don’t stop praying this prayer; God is faithful to answer it in His own time and way. May we all put our full trust and dependence on Him to be the ONLY TRUE Physician for our spiritual blindness and weaknesses! Amen!