Examine Your Heart

Examine Your Heart

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21

Are you constantly thinking about money; enough to pay your bills but still wanting more?  Perhaps you deal in stocks and bonds and are agonizing over the stock market every day?  Do you find yourself getting deeper and deeper in debt? That can be enough to worry and worry about it.  In fact, it can take over your heart to a point it drowns out the voice of God speaking to you in your heart.

Did you know God created us so we would never have to worry about material things?  If you doubt that, read Matthew 6:26-34.  First he tells us that God will provide us with food. “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” Then he tells us that worry itself cannot change anything. “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”

Then in verse 28 he tells us about our clothing. “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”  God goes on to tells us that we shouldn’t worry about food, drinks or clothing because he already knows what you need.  It isn’t always what we want, but it is always what we need!

He tells us that if we seek God and try to live in his righteousness, he will give all these things to us (vs 33).  This is the time to examine your heart; to see where your treasure is, because then you will understand what shape your heart is in.  When we talk about our treasure, we aren’t talking about riches. A treasure can be something as simple as a collection of old buttons, or rare coins.  It can also hold what is the closest to your heart. For some people it really is all about money or things.

Many years ago when I was a young mother, I took on the job of paying the bills.  It was very difficult, because there was never enough money to go around.  I would sit at my kitchen table and go over and over the bills trying to manipulate what little we had to pay everything.  We had very little as far as household things, and we had a very sick child with Polio and thousands of dollars in doctor bills.  I worried until I made myself physically ill, but it didn’t do any good.

Years later when I had given my heart to Jesus, I learned to give all of me to the Lord.  My children were grown with children of their own when I finally realized what the treasure of my heart was.  It wasn’t money because I would never be wealthy; it wasn’t what I had in ‘things’, it was that God loved me so much he gave his only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for my sins.  How amazing is that?  Then I learned to tithe and no longer ‘rob’ God (see Malachi 3:8).  From that time on God has provided for us.  It is so amazing to see how He has worked in our lives; we will always be thankful to Him for what he does daily in our hearts and in our lives.

There are two scriptures you should write down.  One is in John 11:22, “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you”.  The other is in Matthew 21:22, “Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”  Use the faith God has given you.  Ask God and believe he will give what you ask.  He does not lie; He wants to help you because he loves you.  Personally, I want God to take hold of my life and lead me where he wants me to go.  I want to believe every word he has said and to have the faith to believe it.

Examine your heart and you won’t have to search for the treasure because you already have it.  Give your heart to Jesus and become His treasure.