Mission 1:8 Generation Now Devotional | 2018 - Day 14
Everything Belongs to God
By Dr. Robert Jeffress
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:21
God says everything belongs to Him. He said in Job 41:11, “Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.” In Haggai 2:8, God said, “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine.”
You may say, “I’m a smart investor and hard worker; I deserve what I have. It’s mine!” Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth.” Your intellect, the energy you have to get up and go to work—it all comes from God. We are managers, not owners of anything.
In Matthew 6:21, Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If I had been Jesus, I would have said it the other way: “Where your heart is, there your treasure will also be.” In other words, “Do you really love Me? Then prove it by your giving.” But that’s not what Jesus said. He said your heart follows your investments. For example, if your treasure is in the stock market, you will check the Dow Jones Industrial Average all the time. If your treasure is in your house or cars or clothes, that’s where your affection will naturally be.
You might say, “Pastor, I wish I loved God more, but I can go days or even weeks without thinking about Him very much. I’m so caught up in what I’m trying to achieve that I’m not really that interested in spiritual things.” Jesus says very compassionately to you, “I’ve got a remedy for that. Put your treasure in spiritual things; because where your treasure is, there your heart will be.”
Years ago, a man in my previous church invested a large amount of money in the building of our new worship center. When I talked to him about it, he explained, “The first thing I used to do every morning was to open the newspaper and check the stock market because that’s where my treasure was. Now the first thing I do every morning is drive to the church and watch the bulldozers at work because that’s where my treasure is.” That is what Jesus was saying. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Questions for Thought
- Are your affections and thoughts built around spiritual things or temporal things?
- In what ways do you need to make changes in your priorities in order to invest in things of eternal significance?
Author Bio
Dr. Robert Jeffress
Senior Pastor
Dr. Robert Jeffess is the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Dallas. He is an adjunct professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, consistently makes guest appearances on various radio and television programs and mainstream media outlets, hosts a daily radio program, Pathway to Victory, and is the author of 25 books. He and his wife, Amy, have two daughters and three grandchildren.