Matthew 6 - Practising Righteousness Sample

Accumulation

It appears that accumulation is the issue—something we are probably all guilty of in one way or another. The West is famous for junk; how often are we surrounded by unnecessary possessions. As a practical aside it is worth the energy to declutter regularly. If you didn’t use something in the last year or two, it is unlikely you will use it in the next few years (unless it is a fire alarm)—time to give it away, recycle it, or trash it.

Money/goods (treasure) corrupt, fade, and lose value, so why needlessly accumulate? And people steal—whether physically or digitally, regardless of the best methods of protection. You can’t guarantee your goods, but God guarantees what is given/stored in heaven. The book of Hebrews records the joyful losses of their goods that God’s people faced under persecution. How would we react under similar circumstances? I suspect it wouldn’t be pretty.

What’s the point? Because “where your treasure is, there your heart will be.” In other words, your affections follow your goods. The more goods you have the more you are distracted/worried—security, alarms, cameras, and back-to-base systems. If your treasure is in, or is, your home, then your home is where your heart is. And that’s a problem—lose your home, and you’ll lose heart. I doubt this means we aren’t to treasure the space we call home, filled with wonderful memories, but if it is our sole/undivided focus, we are in danger of making an idol out of the perishable.