"But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal"  — Matthew 6:19.

Heaven is the safest place to preserve and protect our treasures. I can imagine a skeptic saying, "Well I'm not sure what you mean by heaven but it is understandable that in Jesus' days there was no trust for the banking and financial system." When Jesus walked the earth there was no financial market, no government guarantees, limited security, no democracy and no government regulations to protect individual's investments from loss through negligence or fraud. In today's world, especially in developed countries, we are accustomed to trusting our banks and financial markets due in part to a western evolved economic system influenced by Judeo-Christian values that recognizes that without ethics in the marketplace, commerce cannot be effective nor efficient. Without trust and integrity in the market there is no investor confidence. Today governments go out of their way to put policies in place and make examples out of some of the violators to send a clear message to us that our money is safe.

You would think that with all these measures in place Jesus' words in Matthew 6 would no longer be relevant today. The reality is that this actually confirms the wisdom of Jesus' words. No matter how advanced our culture or how sophisticated our economic systems, earth will never be a safe place to protect our treasures. How then does one move their treasures from earth to heaven?

There are some people who have developed such as mistrust of the markets that they have moved all of their money to either cash or into their personal possessions. They believe that our economic system is totally unsafe. The problem with this is that it is still on earth where moth and rust can still destroy it and thieves can still break in and steal. I also do not believe that Jesus was telling us to remove all our moneys from the financial systems because in Matthew 25:27 He states to the servant with the one talent who was concerned about losing his investment, "So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest." Remember their banking systems were completely unsafe and did not have government guarantee.

So what does Jesus mean? The reality is, it is impossible to move physical money to heaven and by the way, even if we could, our money has no value in heaven. What we can and must do is place our hearts in heaven and allow heaven to direct the use of our money. You see Jesus was trying to get us to take our focus off the things on earth and put it on things in heaven and allow heaven to direct our decision on earth. He was less concerned about the physical location of our possessions and more concerned about the vertical positioning of our hearts.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." — Matthew 6:33.

"Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." — Colossians 3:2.

Jesus concludes his statement by saying, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" Matthew 6:21.  The way you measure if your heart truly is in heaven is to evaluate where you put your treasures. Your treasure is in heaven when:

• You invest in things that honour God - 2 Corinthians 6:11-18.
• You give to things that advance God's kingdom - I Timothy 6:17-19.
• You do not worry about money - Matthew 6:25-31.
• You trust God to provide for your needs - Matthew 6:32-33.

Our prayer for you today is that you will move your heart to heaven and allow heaven to direct the use of your treasures.

Reflection: Are you willing to trust God to direct the use of your treasures?

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