Press the arrow to listen to Matt Redman’s Blessed Be Your Name while you read today’s devotion.
Scripture
Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Matthew 6:20-21
Observation
There is no trailer hitch on a hearse for a UHaul. There is no luggage rack on a coffin. As Karl Barth summarized, “One day the hearse will leave the cemetery and everyone will leave except you.” Here’s another one from George Bernard Shaw: “The statistics on death are impressive; one out of one people die.”
If death is a given, why do we buy and sell as if it did not exist? At best we consider death in a nursing home or on a deathbed. Few consider death when it really matters most: during LIFE. How much more we could enjoy life if we adjusted every decision with the end in mind. We would live clean and focused.
The best example of human frugality without God is saving for retirement. That is commendable, but not enough. We should be saving for eternity. We should start by first moving our heart into heaven. If we will do that, every daily decision becomes simpler.
When Leslie and I were first married, we had as our ambition to move to Australia to pastor a church. We were 21 when we married and by age 24 we did move to Brisbane and there we pastored for 21 years. It was one of the best decisions of our lives. During that four years of waiting to go, we made every decision based on our future move. We lived light in America because we knew that our home would soon be in Australia. Many things we passed up on buying because it just wasn’t time yet.
Application
Jesus asks me to live like that today. I am not settling down on earth, I’m packing for heaven. There are works beyond this life, and the way we live and give prepare us for them. What will I have in heaven to work with if we only die with a 401K? What I own, I owe, only what I give, I have.
Prayer
Thank you Father for what I don’t have in my possession that is in your hands. It is safer there; help me to live confident of that. I chose to move my heart to heaven today. Amen.
