Money Leads; Hearts Follow
Suppose I offer you one thousand dollars to spend today however you want. Not a bad deal. But suppose I give you a choice. You can either have that thousand dollars today, or you can have ten million dollars if you wait one year - then ten million more every year thereafter.
What would you chose?
Only a fool would take the thousand dollars today. Yet that's what we do when we grab on to what will last only for a moment, forgoing something far more valuable we cold enjoy later for much longer. A year may seem like a long time to wait. But after it's done - as when our lives here are done - it will seem like it passed incredibly quickly. Early in the year, some may gloat about how they have the thousand dollars and we don't. But as the year goes on, every day their little treasure fades, while our huge treasure gets closer.
Where is your heart?
Christ's words are profound: "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21). What we do with our possessions is a sure indicator of what's in our hearts. Jesus is saying, "Show me your checkbook, your credit card statement, and your receipts for cash expenditures, and I'll show you where your heart is." What we do with our money doesn't lie. It's a bold statement to God of what we truly value.
But what we do with our money doesn't simply indicate where our heart is. According to Jesus, it determines where our heart goes. This is an amazing and exciting truth. If I want my heart to be in one particular place and not in another, then I need to put my money in that place and not in the other.
I have heard people say, "I want more of a heart for missions." I always respond, "Jesus tells you exactly how to get it. Put your money in missions, and your heart will follow."
Do you wish you had a greater heart for the poor and lost? Then give your money to help the poor and reach the lost. Do you want your heart to be in your church? Put your money there. Your heart will always be where your money is. Your heart will never be where your money isn't. If most of your money is in mutual funds, retirement, your house, or your hobby, that's where your heart is going to be.
That doesn't mean it is wrong to have some money in earthly things. Nor does it mean that earthly things can't be used as they are - without liquidating them - to serve God's purposes.
"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has" (Proverbs 21:20). The ant is commended because "it stores its provisions in the summer and gathers its food at harvest." (Proverbs 6:6-8). It's a shortsighted person who fails to store up provisions (money, food, materials) for upcoming times of predictable need.
Yet there's a point where accumulating money and possessions becomes stockpiling, which generates a strong gravitational hold on our hearts. Saving becomes hoarding when it's asserting our financial independence so we imagine we don't have to trust God anymore. Retirement savings can be excessive and too easily become our source of security, turning into idols.
Giving is the alternative to spending or hoarding that breaks the back of materialism. The act of giving is a vivid reminder that it's all about God, not about us. Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and greater agenda. It affirms Christ's lordship. Giving dethrones me and exalts him. It breaks the chains of mammon that would enslave me. It makes heaven, not earth, my center of gravity.
"My heart isn't in the things of God." Is it because your treasure isn't in the things of God? Put your resources, your assets, your money and possessions, your time and talents and energies into the things of God. As surely as the compass needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure.
Money leads; hearts follow.
5:38:07 PM 
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