Priorities and Practices

Where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” Matthew 6:21 MSG.

Your attention, efforts, and resources flow to where your interests and investments are.

My thoughts and comments today are about “priorities and practices.”

Every day in many ways, you decide what is important to you. Be sure to make those decisions consciously and deliberately, lest they occur by default through insufficient forethought. More decisions are about a person’s happiness rather than their holiness. Who and what you believe to be of value and importance shapes who you become and determines how and where you invest your time, talent, and treasure.

Haggai, an Old Testament prophet, captured the futility of continuing in unprofitable ways. “Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.” Haggai 1:5-6 NKJV. Isaiah challenged Israel, “Why do you spend money for what . . does not satisfy?” Isaiah 55:2.

Jesus taught this simple, practical truth, Where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” Matthew 6:21 MSG. Jesus described an inevitability of destination. When viewing what is near and dear to you, where would you “end up being?” As predictably as water flows to the lowest point, your attention, efforts, and resources flow to where your interests and investments are.

In two stories brilliant for their brevity, Jesus likened His Kingdom to persons who discovered such vast treasures that they sold all they had to possess the riches they had discovered. Read Matthew 13:44-46. Jesus captured the profound simplicity of Godly priorities and practices, “Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 NIV. The rule and reign of God must be your priority in all things and your practice at all times.

Never sacrifice the invaluable and eternal for inconsequential trinkets or abbreviated pleasures. Learn a valuable lesson from Old Testament Esau, “who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son . . afterward, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.” Hebrews 12:16-17 NIV. Also see Genesis 25:29-34. Choose wisely; some choices may be irreversible.

Desires, direction, and even your eternal destiny will be shaped by who or what you choose to treasure. Jesus commanded, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:19-21. Yes; Jesus is right. Where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” I choose Heaven for my destination, because the Savior and others I treasure most will be waiting for me there. I would be disappointed if I were not to see you there as well. “Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8.

Today, my prayer for you is that you will prize the things that are invaluable and irreplaceable.