Matthew 6:19-20
AMP

19 Do not gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal; 20 But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal.

 

I’ve had head knowledge of this verse for years. I know I cannot outgive God – that no matter what I give, be it money, time or something else, God brings increase. At one point, however, in a split second, while I was reading something only marginally related, it dawned on me…

This is literal; God means it!

I know, this sounds so very simple. And it is simple, but really…

From what I’ve learned about the lives we’ll live for eternity, it seems to me that the lives we live here are a type and shadow of the things to come – like the life of the Old Testament was a type and shadow of the life of the New Testament. If I am right… What does this mean?

“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…”

If we store them up, it is so that they will be there when we arrive. If they are treasures, they will be of significant value when we get there. Bottom line: We are storing up something that will matter.

Analogy: There are those who would call a man a fool for not having a retirement plan – because he is not storing up money for that time in the future when he will need it. I know one man like this. He feels that you have no business doing anything else at all with your money until you have a certain amount set aside for the future. Yet he seems to give no thought at all to storing up treasures in Heaven.

But, as I begin to see it, that is the ultimate retirement plan! The life we live here is so finite, so limited, but the life we soon go to live is infinite.

Again, back to the analogy… If one were to be given a choice of two retirement plans – one that would pay out in three years and one that would pay out in thirty – which would the wise man choose? (I assume that, by the world’s standards, the obvious choice would be the thirty-year plan.)

Yet here we are, being offered two plans – one that pays out today and one that will pay out in tomorrow’s eternity when we’ll really need it – and which do most of us choose?

I really am rethinking certain things now…working at moving a few mindsets out of my way. I’m not against earthly retirement plans, of course. On the contrary, I am only just now recognizing their real significance…

…especially as a type and shadow of things to come!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C