Where Is Your Treasure: Luke 12:13-34

One phrase stood out to me as I read this passage: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (v. 34)

I know for me, a decent amount of time is spent thinking about money, or a task that involves money to complete. There is an emergency fund that needs to be completed, several home improvement/repair projects that are not getting any better by themselves, and the goal of expanding our family in the near future just to name a few.

In this passage, as the glorious climax to a parable on greed, and a teaching on contentment and trust, we have this key phrase, which tells us something about our fallen human state, compared to our ideal “sons and daughters of God” state.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (v. 34)

This phrase speaks to goals and to our focus in life. It is a surprisingly accurate test we can use to determine the focus of our heart and our lives. For my wife and I, the big percentage categories of our budget include tithe and offering (giving), utilities and mortgage expenses (shelter), health expenses, and leisure activities. Probably the biggest percentage in this mix is the shelter category. I imagine that many other people can relate to us.

Don’t misunderstand me though. I am not saying that shelter, health, or leisure are bad places to use money, or that they all should not exceed what we give — though if God is pushing you in that direction, I don’t want to stand in His way. Instead, too often I find that most of our money ends up being spent on ourselves, which says that our hearts are focused on ourselves — even though we like to think that we are very other-focused. We could call “other-focused” “kingdom-focused” because what matters in the long run is helping others to know Jesus so they can be included in God’s Kingdom. In many cases, the best way to help others with this is by helping them with a tangible, physical need that they have. We can see Jesus doing this because He first would heal the sick before beginning His sermon — or He would stop His teaching if an ill person showed up.

Jesus was interested in helping people physically, so He could teach them spiritually.

The big idea that I have learned regarding our treasure and our giving is that we must make giving intentional for it to be effective. We have challenged ourselves with giving goals in the past, and as the new year has begun, we want to challenge you with a “giving” goal for this next month.

A challenge you could make for yourself in the coming month is to increase your giving by at least 1%. This means that if you were giving 0% or only sporadically, that you intentionally set aside at least 1% on the front end of your paycheck (before tax or after tax is up to you) to give. If you were already giving 5% or 10%, then let’s increase it to at least 6% or 11% respectively. Chances are you already were giving that 1% sporadically, so really this extra percent won’t be noticeable in your budget when the end of the month comes.

Where should this extra money go? I’ll leave it up to you, though the best place to give this extra money will be a place where you can see the money being used to change lives. A few examples you could choose are a local church or ministry, sponsoring a child in a third world country, or getting involved in micro-finance opportunities around the globe. The possibilities are endless, but the more you can see a life changed, the better the place to give your money.

I love talking about giving and ways to use money wisely, and I could easily share a lot more, but in the interest of time and space, I’ll save it for another journal entry. The big idea I’m emphasizing in this post is that our hearts follow our money. Where we spend or give is an indication of what we value and what we are prioritizing in our lives.