Have you been using your calculator app lately to crunch the numbers? Is your wealth increasing at the rate your Investment Manager promised? Are things quadrupling within the timeframes you had envisioned? Perhaps that’s not the question you needed to be asked today. When the economy goes south or when my stocks don’t perform as well, am I consumed by the downturn? Can I only see dark clouds on the horizon? Does it dominate my thinking? If so, it’s possible I have my priorities mixed-up. I may be living for the wrong thing.
One of the beauties of reading the Bible is God speaks to us through His Word. If we are willing, He will calibrate our perspective with His. Some verses, more than others, pierce the heart like an arrow. When we are open to hearing His Voice, not many verses and very little study is required to be reminded of the emptiness and short-sightedness of shallow living. What kind of life am I living at the core of my being – my reality below the façade of my public religious routines?
Psalm 49 makes it clear – there will be no armoured vehicles in our funeral procession. Our cherished possessions from our safety deposit boxes, our secret stashes and investment accounts will not be a part of the slow-moving motorcade from the church to the cemetery. Our fancy homes and fun automobiles will not be loaded on to flatbed trucks, nor will our boat and other toys be transported to our plot in the cemetery. 
Our newest pieces of technology, our elegant, posh furnishings, wall-hangings, artwork, our don’t-dare-touch-me ornaments, vintage guns and memorable golf clubs, our Gucci wardrobe collections, etc. all stay here. (That shocking piece of news perhaps should have been shared in this post more gently.) But really, wouldn’t you agree, if that’s all I have in life at that point, I have nothing.
Psalm 49:10-11 says it so eloquently but bluntly:
“They leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever and their dwelling places to all generation; they call their lands after their own names…”
Vs. 17: “When he dies he shall carry nothing away…”
Absalom was a Bible character who erected a monument in a valley and called it – guess what? “Absalom.” (2 Samuel 18:18) But, dear Absalom lost it all and lost his soul.
The writer to the Hebrews noted this about the Christians of that day:
“You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” Hebrews 10:34
The writer encourages the Christians. He reminds them how they smiled when their persecutors broke into their homes and stripped them bare of all their possessions. “Remember how you just smiled when they stole all your stuff because you knew they could never get their hands on your real treasure.” Or, words to that effect.
What do I treasure today? What makes a smile come over my face? Can the enemy touch my real treasure? When I daydream – what kind of treasures excite me? Invest for eternity. Make today count for Christ. Live for Him.
Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.
Warmly in Christ
Peter Ramsay
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