Friday, October 12, 2012

What do you Treasure in Life?

What do you regard as precious? What are trying to store and collect? Where are you investing your life? What causes you to think, "My life would be better if I only had______or my life would be worse if I lost_______?" We all make investments of time, money and energy to the things or people that we believe are worthwhile. When it's all said and done, and we look back on our lives, we will understand that our lives were given to these investments. You see, there is a life at stake here, yours! I believe it is worth the time to consider the end, and to consider where you are investing your life.
If we treasure our relationship with God as our primary investment, every other investment will fall into place. It sounds reasonable and simple, but there are plenty of false gods-counterfeit gods, that vie for our attention-that clamor to be preeminent.
There are popular American Idols; good works, good stuff, and good relationships that compete with  who is the ultimate good----God. You see we can treasure our good works, our good performance over our relationship to God. It's easy to think, I'm a pretty good guy, and thus I am probably on the right track with my life. The Apostle Paul discovered his good works, which were significantly better than mine, by the way, were rubbish compared to knowing Christ. When Paul began to pursue God as his treasure, did Paul stop doing good works? No, as a matter of fact, God then used Paul to pen most of the New Testament. When God is the treasure, good works follow, He is the source of all that is truly good.
Another stumbling block to having God as our treasure is the stuff of this world.We all know there is a lot of attractive stuff everywhere we turn. We desire the assets, the riches, the leisure, and the material prosperity of our world, often thinking we can fit God in after we achieve our dreams. God doesn't just "fit in" anywhere, He IS! As we realize our significance, our acceptance, and our security ultimately come from God, only then are we able to take or to leave the stuff of this world. We can learn AW Tozer's secret-the blessedness of possessing nothing-potentially having everything and yet possessing nothing.
Finally we stumble over human relationships; family, marriage, and friendship among others. We believe if we can just have these relationships, everything else in life will fall into place. We become people-pleasers wherein we try to make everyone around us happy and thus believe we will be joyful and fulfilled. Healthy relationships with people spring from and have their foundation in a healthy relationship with God.
As we evaluate where to invest our lives, we must ask, "Why invest in God first over good works, good stuff and good relationships?"  The obvious answer is that He is God, He is the Creator, the Provider, the Judge, and the Great I AM. But beyond the obvious, Jesus Christ provided us with a track record of how to invest a life. Jesus Christ had everything beyond what we could ever imagine-yes, good works, good stuff, and good relationships-the ultimate of each! This great God decided to give it all up for what He knew had the greatest value- He gave His all for the best investment-He gave His life for you!! Will you surrender your life to Him?