“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”–Matthew 6:21
When you hear the word money, what comes to mind? Many of us think we’d be happy with just a little bit more. Interestingly, that seems irrespective of how much we actually have. We may even have a list of the things we would do with the extra–a mixture of causes we’d like to be more generous toward, and things we’d like to do or have ourselves. But that’s if we had more; what about what we already have?
Taking time to look at how our money and things are used can be an enlightening experience. As much as we’d like our lives to be about God and serving others, a lot of our energy goes into ensuring our own needs and those of our immediate family are met. Home, car, food, and clothing usually consume a large portion of our budget; and those things are usually about ourselves, unless we get creative.
When we reposition God as our priority over money, and our hearts are genuinely turned outwards, our home may be re-imagined to become a refuge, both for ourselves and intentionally for others. When we think of the car in our driveway as God’s car, how does it shape what it’s used for? What do meals look like when they become a means to build community and feed not just bodies, but hearts? While money and possessions will not come with us into heaven, appropriate stewardship of both can invest in people–who do have eternal potential! May our hearts be set on eternal things, the things of God.