I don't know about you but I didn't always think why it was so important for us to gather treasures in Heaven (Mat 6:19-20 Do not lay up treasures on earth for yourselves, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up treasures in Heaven for yourselves, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal).
Sure, Jesus said that it would be worth it but I didn't think that there would be more to it than Heavenly luxuries.
Well, that was before I started exploring the concept of what we should filter out when seeing, hearing and talking. God is going to judge us by every idle word we speak, every act we do, etc. So reading through Matthew 12:35-37, I noticed two words that helped explain a lot... treasure and heart.
Mat 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings out good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings out evil things.
Also, I remembered the verse in Mat 6:21 (For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also) and that just came very clear to me. Jesus doesn't want us to gather treasures solely for Heaven, but sothat our hearts will lie with the treasures that we collect sothat further good actions can spring forth from them. We all know that gathering treasure for Heaven is all about doing good deeds that God the Father approves of.
So Jesus actually wants us to become like treasure hunters so that we would start lining up to God's point of view and become better Christians than before. I mean, Jesus did command us to gather treasure (read top scripture).
I once was part of an conversation that lead to why people find it so "wrong" to gather up treasures for themselves. I started asking them about it and they said that just being in Heaven with Jesus is reward enough for them. Then I realised that they thoaght that gathering up treasures was almost like buying their way into Heaven. I explained to them that Jesus wants us to gather treasure because He wants to give us gifts in Heaven that will promote our lifestyle there and to give Him more praise and worship and that He already gave us the gift of everlasting life, which cannot be baught at any price.
I continued with the explanation Paul gave in 1Co 3:15 (If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. But he shall be saved, yet so as by fire) that those who accepted Christ as their saviour but never sought to gather treasures for themselves in Heaven (by not building on the foundation of Christ as mentioned in I Corinthians 3:12 with gold, silver, precious stones) will be like poor people in Heaven, who was pulled from the fire with only a few burnt marks after God's judgement. The rest will be rewarded by their works that remained after the fire burnt it.
So it is imperitive that we start gathering treasure for ourselves in Heaven by building on the foundation of Christ with gold, silver, precious stones which cannot be destroyed by the fire of God's judgement. One might ask how we do that. I was taught in Church that doing that which Christ instructed us to do, is the foundation of gathering such treasure. Things such as, forgiving your neighbour 77 x 7 times (in other words infinite!), helping the needy and weak, giving food to the hungry, blessing those who curse you, etc. Its not easy and it would be starteling if it was.
So I hope that you have found my discovery usefull/inspiring/etc and I hope that all of you who read this will gather many treasures for yourselves in Heaven!
Good day and God Bless!
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