Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for forgiving our sins. Thank You for clothing us in Your righteousness and giving us a more than abundant life through Your precious Son, Jesus Christ. You want us to have great relationships with people, to have a good job, shelter, food, good health and plenty of blessings to share with others. This is Your desire for us, but we know that everyone doesn’t have these blessings. Some people are struggling to put food on the table, and they are living paycheck to paycheck. They are wondering why they have to struggle so much when others do not struggle at all.
In reality, every person that is above ground, living and breathing, and waking up each morning is already blessed beyond measure. Life is Your gift to us. Salvation is Your gift to us. We could never do enough to earn all the extraordinary blessings and gifts You’ve bestowed on us. You’ve given them because of Your unyielding grace and mercy, and You don’t want any person to have financial or health struggles. Many people that do not know You and will never accept Your Son as their Lord and Savior, appear as if they do not struggle because they are of the world. They look good on the outside but are tormented and full of darkness on the inside. It is true that believers struggle, and sometimes it is because they have more to learn about Your Word and the example of Christ. In Your Word, You tell us we have victory in Christ and You tell us how to avoid struggles of any kind.
Jesus Christ teaches in Matthew 6:19-20(NLT), “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.” Many people have not heeded the commandment of Christ in Matthew 6:19-20. They have looked at the world and what it offers, they see these as the treasures they should pursue. Instead of storing up treasures in heaven, they have in fact stored their treasures on earth, where they are constantly under attack by the devil.
In biblical times, people valued things like gold and silver jewelry. They considered material things like this as their treasure and would even be buried with these things. We don’t see much of this being buried with treasures in our time, but people are obsessed with material things more than ever and make it their life’s pursuit to obtain them.
2Corinthians 4:7(NLT) says, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” We have Christ dwelling within us through Your Holy Spirit, and this is the treasure 2Corinthians 4:7 is referring to. Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, we are Your children, and this is the greatest treasure of all eternity. We all make choices day by day. We can choose to become more like Christ, or we can choose to become more like people of the world. The decision is squarely ours to make.
Making choices to become more like Jesus Christ causes us to lay up treasures in heaven, and we can draw down upon the strength of those treasures while we’re living in the earth. Many people are not laying up enough spiritual treasures in heaven. They are not using all the opportunities You give every person to choose love instead of fear and doubt. They have refused to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. Because of this, when they really need spiritual strength the most, they don’t have it. This is the root of every person’s struggle, not having the mind and spiritual strength of Jesus Christ, and not having faith in Your goodness to freely give it.
Thank You for opening our eyes to the reality that we need to draw closer to You. Jesus Christ tells us in John 14:6 that he is the way, the truth, and the life. Everything that we need to live a successful Christian life is in him, for Acts 17:28 tells us that it is in him that we live, move, and have our being. Please forgive us for falling short of the example of Jesus Christ. Please help us to walk in his Spirit in a greater way so that our spiritual treasury is increased daily. Thank You for our precious and powerful Lord and Savior. Thank You for the extraordinary gift of Holy Spirit and thank You for all Your many blessings. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Lay Up Treasures in Heaven”, written by K. Lizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.