What is your Treasure in Life?

Everyone seems to be very busy and busyness seems to assume a life of its own.

It may be your job, pursuing a future spouse, “taking” care of your family or taking it easy when you have accumulated enough. All these “legitimate” activities seem to have left us little time to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness first, apart from coming to Church on Sunday morning, even though our Saviour has told us to do so and couple it with beautiful promises (Matt 6:33). It would appear to me that many have got it wrong since the plain reading would mean that we must deprioritize other “legitimate” things and put the pursuit of God’s kingdom first. Answering to Jesus’s injunction means changing the tenor of one’s life, making time for God’s Kingdom as found in the local church, such as answering to the call of service in church as cell group members, cell group leaders, Sunday school teachers, deacons, elders or perhaps serving actively to bring other people to Christ at the workplace and more!

How do we then measure the tenor of our life and see if it is congruent with Matt 6:33? Where do we start? We can perhaps start by answering the hypothetical question posted to us by Jesus today, namely, “What does your life consist of? Does it consist in the abundance of your possessions?”, taking a leaf from the gospel account found in Luke 12:15. If our life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions, then what does it ought to consist of? I remember being taught by my Sunday school teacher well over three decades ago on Luke 12:15. While always grateful for reminding me what my life should not consist of, on hindsight I didn’t remembering him telling me what it should consist of! But we should seek to answer that shortly. I trust that we are all very familiar with the parable, of the foolish rich man found in Luke 12:16-20, that is used by Jesus to illustrate that truth. Besides the hypothetical question posed to you by Jesus of what your life consists of, I can perhaps ask you, “What does it mean to be rich towards God as found in Luke 12:21?”

What think ye?

I believe the answer to the two questions are the same. Let’s look at the first question carefully again. Jesus says that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. If so, what then should it consist of? What about the second question? We know what is laying up treasure for ourselves but what does it mean to be rich towards God? Does being rich towards God means putting our wealth at God’s disposal? Certainly not since God does not need our riches! I believe the two questions have the same answer given their contextual meaning. To be rich towards God is having God as the true wealth and the only treasure in this life and eternity. It therefore also means that that the true life consists of having God abundantly! Such a person is truly rich even if he has little earthly possessions in this life. It seems logical as God is the Creator of all things and the only absolute Good (Luke 18:19)! We have this well echoed by the psalmist in Ps 73:25: “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” So do you see my point? If our life consists of having God abundantly and our only treasure is God, it follows that we would have time and energy for God and his Kingdom, don’t you think so?

The notion that God is our treasure can also be seen in the message that Pastor Chong preached last Sunday concerning the Israelites being God’s peculiar treasure when they keep his covenant, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine” (Exodus 19:5). If God considers us as his peculiar possession (Titus 2:14), as much as He brought us to himself through the death of his dear son, what a mind-blowing thought, what a privilege! Then indeed we should in return bow in worship and consider God too as our supreme and consuming treasure and be done with every earthy treasure! Indeed, not to do so is blasphemy! If God is your treasure, then there admits no other competing treasure in your life! (Matt 6:21).

So, I am duty bound to ask you again, are you available to serve God? Think carefully before you answer as the rich fool (Luke 12:19) is listening and as your answer may reflect the tenor of your faith and your eternal destiny as it stands this morning!

So, what is your treasure in life?