LifeLink Devotions

Friday, May 12, 2023

Psalm 119:162 “I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil.”

When I was a 10-years old my family moved from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to the lower peninsula town of Oscoda. We lived in a church parsonage right next to the church just north of town. Across the highway was Lake Huron, and behind the house were woods with a small creek running through them. Next door to the north was another church, and in its backyard were small sand dunes left from an era when Lake Huron was much larger.

I will never forget the treasure hunting I would do in those sand dunes and along the edges of the woods. The reason was because I would find old arrowheads that had been carved out of stone. I wish I still had some of them, but they were all lost somewhere in subsequent moves.

How fascinated I was with imagining how they had been made, by whom they had been made, and how they had been used. Every arrowhead held a different story for me. I never grew tired of looking for another one, and I would be overwhelmed with joy whenever I would find one. Not only was it a treasure to find, but it held unending possibilities for my imagination.

I still find earthly treasures today, and I still rejoice. But sadly the rejoicing I do over earthly treasure generally exceeds the rejoicing I do over spiritual treasure. Why is that? Why is it that we can jump and shout in a crowd of people watching a concert or sporting event, but we hold back from any visible display of emotion when worshipping Almighty God? When will the discovery of truth be to us as great a treasure as the discovery of material wealth?

Here’s one suggestion for us today. Count the number of text messages, Facebook posts, Tweets, emails, and phone calls you made yesterday. Now, count the number of all those that related to spiritual things. What does it reveal about where your treasure is? Did not Jesus say, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”?(Matthew 6:21)

I believe it’s time for a heart check. So here are some helpful verses to get us started on re-evaluating our priorities and treasures. Please take the time to read them carefully, prayerfully, and humbly. Ask the Lord to reveal any inconsistency in our heart so that He alone is our treasure and the reason for our rejoicing. Are you ready to discover some treasure?

Proverbs 7:1 “My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;”

Proverbs 15:16 “Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.”

Matthew 13:44“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Luke 12:19-21 “And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Luke 12:33 “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

1 Timothy 6:18-19 “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”

Rejoice in God’s Word like one who has found a treasure. Do not return to the comforts of our own making we think are found in the treasures of the earth?

Pastor John