You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
-Luke 12:40
God has put us in charge of many things. As Christians, we will all stand before God and wait to hear those words in Matthew 25:23 “Well done, good and faithful servant!” It’s important to be aware, every day, how you spend your time, use your talents and the earthly and heavenly treasures you store up. You want to know your eternal purpose before you go, so you can live life accordingly.
Ever see a pregnant woman prepare her bags for the day she delivers? She has no clue when it’s going to happen, but she’s got a list of things to bring to the hospital for herself and her newborn baby. Like that pregnant woman, you’ve got to know before you go. Not just for you, but for the baby. What will I need? What will the baby need? She can only bring so much stuff with her, so you better believe every item is well thought out and is packed with purpose.
It’s the same way as you prepare to meet God. You don’t know when, but you must prepare yourself. You have to know His desires so you have eternal purpose for living. What He wants you to have stored up. One look at your time, talents and treasures and it’s clear what your priorities are.
GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT
Many of my professional organizing clients’ attitudes reflect this famous quote by Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbs) “I believe God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I’m so far behind that I will never die.”
Our simple day-to-day priorities reveal that those priorities are a reflection of what we truly treasure. On judgment day, your treasures will be illuminated. What you stored on Earth will pass away. What you stored up in Heaven lasts for eternity.
By learning and illuminating your heart’s treasures, both earthly and heavenly, is critical in understanding the process of “storing up things that do not pass.” Learning how to increase your “heavenly” treasures will transform the way you think, thereby transforming your priorities for your day.
WHAT YOUR LIFE SAYS ABOUT YOU
What is a treasure? It’s a concentration of riches, often one that is considered lost or forgotten until it’s rediscovered. Just as your use of time says a lot about your priorities, so your material things (treasures) say a lot about your heart and thoughts. So just what does a heavenly treasure look like? Unless we can visualize it, this treasure will remain some ethereal concept that can never be stored away.
YOUR HEAVENLY INVESTMENT
“People…people who need people are the luckiest people in the world”, says the song. People are our investments in heaven. Giving of our time, talent and treasures to people are the heavenly treasures that will be stored up for us. But exactly what that looks like is different for each of us. Our gifts and talents are unique and expressed as only we can.
- Identify your heart’s treasures, both earthly and heavenly. This is critical for you to begin storing up those things that do not pass away.
- Visualize the treasure so it will no longer remain some ethereal concept that can never be stored away.
- Learn how to increase your heavenly treasures so you can transform the way you think and prioritize your day.
- Understand how to honor and respect the material blessings God has already entrusted to you here on earth so you can begin the process of caring for each, and every, item you have.
- Discover and develop your unique gifting so you can serve others with your gift and lay up treasures that rust and moths cannot corrupt.
To help you visualize how your treasures can either hinder you or serve you, here’s the testimony of Mary sharing how she discovered her true treasures:
I have to look at my life and what my treasures on earth really are. I choose to do so because I feel I have no choice but to get rid of the shame and disappointments my home is bringing me. I find that God reveals things to me as I de-clutter. My current treasures, I’ve discovered, are rolls and rolls of wrapping paper. Hidden in my closet was wrapping paper, intended for the holidays, but now the rolls are so badly damaged, they are junk. I can no longer use them for the holidays for which they were intended.
Many holidays have gone un-celebrated. I cannot even bring friends and family into my home because of my home’s condition. As a result, I am not bringing joy to other people at all. My heart remains closed in shame because I can’t get my home orderly enough to celebrate, so the intended wrapping paper for past gifts haunts my memories. What we store on Earth is where our heart is, and my heart is not in the right place. I have chosen to put my heart in a pile of junk! This didn’t happen overnight. It was a series of small choices I made.
Satan would love for me to continue making excuses to keep this going. However, I need to be completely honest with myself and with God. I need to confess this series of “harmless” sins I have committed in choosing not to deal with “this” and “that” today. Saving unused items doesn’t add to my life or my ability to serve God. Stocking up for “just in case” days keeps me chained to my past. I need to trust that God will provide what I need so I don’t have to store it up. In order to be free— to follow God and to trust Him— I need to lighten my mental, physical, and spiritual load. I can say over and over again that I want to serve God; but if I choose to enclose myself in a prison of pain and clutter, I am useless. There is no point to it and no need for it. I’m frightened to really follow God. But deep in my heart I know that with God running the show, I know there is nothing to fear.
Lord, I need to trust you today and more every day. Speak to my heart and place trust there, so that I am not afraid to truly follow you and to live the life you have purposed for me, according to your will.
When you look at your life, remember you will be judged on how you manage the eternal purposes God entrusted to you. It’s my heart’s desire that you will know your purpose before you go!
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