The scripture for today, June 20, is Matthew 6:20f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
In describing heaven, terms are used like pearls, diamonds, emeralds, gold, and so on. So certainly God is not against riches. Otherwise he would not have described heaven with those terms.
So what is the problem? We must ask ourselves, “If I lost everything tomorrow, could I face life?” We may say yes, but what about friends who are now unsure they want to associate with someone with nothing? So, it is not only a greed problem, but a social problem. It is a problem of losing both our possessions and our friends.
Some have solved this problem by moving out into the country where possessions and social status don’t mean so much. Or we could
stay where we are and just change our choice of friends. Our new friends may be truer friends than we ever had before and may need us
more.
Lastly, if we lost our job, our car, our home ~ our identity ~ would we be so devastated that we would contemplate suicide as some have done? Or would we be able to look around us and see what we can do without having possessions and without having a job to occupy our time?
There are always things we can do for others. Is that truly where our heart is? In that case, loss of everything will not bring catastrophe. Rather, it would give opportunity to reveal what stuff we are made of deep down inside where our true treasure is ~ in our heart.