RickRouse.com

“Laying Up Treasures”

Sep 1, 2007 My thoughts on...

For many people life is all about accumulating stuff – that is, “laying up treasures”. They spend each and every day working and/or going deeper into debt in order to buy a bigger house, a more expensive car, a boat or some other much-desired worldly possession, all the while failing to realize that God has already given them the two most precious treasures they will ever attain: life itself and the gift of salvation.

Of course there are certain things that folks need in order to live a comfortable life here on earth, but a lot of the “things” we work so hard to pay for are actually little more than status symbols. For example, no one really needs a 25 million dollar house, a 50,000 acre “ranch” or an entire fleet of personal automobiles, but there are super-rich people who own them. And then you have the “middle class” with many of its members struggling just to make the minimum payments on their credit accounts while dreaming about getting their hands on the latest gadget simply because the neighbor down the street has one.

For all too many, life is a vicious cycle: Work long and hard to accrue more “things”, and then work longer and harder to “pay them off”. But it doesn’t have to be that way…

The wise among us realize that the treasures that matter the most cannot be bought or sold. When it comes right down to it, the only real treasures we have down here are our own lives, the lives and love of our family and friends, and of course the greatest treasure of all: the precious gift of salvation that our beloved Saviour Jesus Christ has made freely available to anyone who is willing to accept it. I believe we would all be much happier if we slowed down a bit and took the time to enjoy the treasures that God has already blessed us with.