Eyes on Eternity

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things

-Colossians 3:2

This verse has been on my heart a lot lately and coming up in different devotionals and videos I have been watching.

Whenever a verse or faith topic come up a lot, I believe God is trying to get your attention.

I believe it is a profound way that God communicates with us and we have to be alert and listen to what He is showing us.

To be honest, this verse has challenged me.

Jesus is the center of my life and my faith is a constant on my mind, but being human, living on this earth, it can be easy to get wrapped up into the things of this world too.

Whenever I read the verse aloud or within myself, I get it but I did not fully understand it until recently. I felt God pressing me more and more to look into it.

Without even trying, as I was watching one of my favorite couples Youtube channel, the topic of eternity came up.

I feel like when God wants you to know something or teach you something, He always knows where to find you and will keep pursuing you.

Just another beautiful way about God; He knows how to communicate specifically to you and break into your heart.

God is our heavenly Father and just like your earthly father, He wants to teach you valuable lessons. That is what I have found the sweetest lately about my relationship with my heavenly Father: If you ask Him to teach you things and ask to show you what He wants to teach you, He is always faithful to answer you.

 

Treasures in Heaven

The couple on the Youtube channel said that the verses Matthew 6:19-21 was about storing up treasures. But not on earth, but in our eternal home, heaven.

This really caught my attention because the topic of setting your sights on heaven not on earthly things, was a constant for me lately.

I opened my bible and began to read what it says:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” -Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

As I read these verses over a few times and researched it further, I can tell you there is a big, big lesson to be learned in this.

I feel like I always learn something new when I open my bible but this lesson feels more impactful and beautiful that God taught me.

There is so much depth and beauty in these three verses and I felt like I needed to share what God recently taught me to all of you.

The first question I had was: How do you store up treasures in heaven?

We all know that we cannot take anything physical out of this world with us, so what did Jesus mean by treasures?

As I was reading the bible one day, I noticed this one thing that Jesus kept saying in many different sections:

…because great is your reward in heaven..

I saw this coming up in various verses in the book of Matthew and the more I looked into it, this is exactly where the answer was for what treasures Jesus was talking about storing up in heaven.

These are the verses in Matthew that kept saying this line and later found out that these areas in our faith impact us for eternity:

Giving to the needy

Praying in secret

Fasting

Persecution/insults because of your faith

Loving your enemies

Forgiving someone who has wronged you

Besides these treasures, these verses are the very essence of how we are supposed to live our lives as followers of Jesus. 

How we live our lives and love others will be our treasures when we go to heaven someday.

And it obviously is not about just storing up treasures for ourselves in a greedy way. But what it truly is about is loving Jesus and wanting to live the right way because of what His love means to you. The most wonderful reward we will ever receive as a believer is getting to live with Him forever into eternity and looking into His eyes one day with awe.

The fact that we get to praise Him in this life and pray to a God that loves us and that the God of the universe wants to have a relationship with us is an amazing gift itself and that is something not to take for granted.

You can compare it to loving here on earth.

Love is not what we can get from the other person but what we can do to bless them and show our love to them through our actions.

This lesson has so much depth in it and I am sure I haven’t uncovered all of it yet, but I think that is how God intended reading His word should be; so our desire remains strong to keep wanting to find out more.

There is so much wisdom/depth in just a few verses and it connects to other verses in different sections as well.

Gods word is a never ending beautiful story and we must put the pieces together and listen to what God wants to teach us through it.

 

I want to end this with something for you to ponder, which has changed my perspective tremendously on how I live my life. I hope it challenges you as well, to think deeper about your life:

Live your life not just for the here and now, but with eternity in mind. Whenever you are faced with a decision what ever it may be big or small, think if it will be worth something in eternity.

I love this because I feel it will definitely cause you to think in a different way with  your life and decisions that you need to make with having your eyes on eternity, not just what that decision will do for you in a moment or 5 to 10 years from now.

I hope you found some beauty in these verses, like I have and hope you have a blessed week leading up to Resurrection day. 

I also want to say I know there has been a lot of uncertainty lately with this virus, but let’s not forget whose you are and to fix your eyes on Jesus through whatever you may face this week and trust in Him always. He is your protector in life and the same goes for this virus. He is shielding you, guiding you, and caring for your needs during this time. We must activate our faith more than ever during challenging times and believe and declare that we trust in Him and thank Him for being in control, when the world is in panic mode. Let’s be His light during this time.

All for Jesus,

Steph