Accrue Heaven's Treasure

July 14

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God,” Romans 12:1, 2.

We are in the world, but we are not to be of the world. In 1 John 2:15 the Beloved Apostle says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world for If anyone loves the world, the love for the Father is not in him.”

We are rather like the individual who is an accomplished swimmer. He can perform great feats in the water, he can traverse great distances in the water, he can attain a high degree of mastery of the water, but he cannot remain there indefinitely. The water is not his natural environment.

We who are Christ’s are in a similar circumstance. We function here among every-day people who go about ordinary tasks as we do. We breathe the same air, we long for the same basic needs of food and love and peace. We enjoy the comforts that life can bestow upon those who are diligent to the tasks before them, but we are not to be ‘conformed’ to this life or to any of its pursuits.

Our endeavors while we occupy this tabernacle of flesh are to be of only secondary significance to us, for the heart of who we are is to be anchored in the Father’s will for us. If we attain wealth, may we invest it to His Kingdom’s purposes. If we achieve fame, may we use it to promote an understanding of the Holy One and His “unspeakable gift,” II Corinthians 9:15, among the lost. If we wield the world’s power, may we employ it to minister to the needs of the powerless that they may know the Savior’s hand of love extended to them at the point of their need.

And may we hold loosely to life, for we know it is as “a vapor that is here as morning dew and then is gone,” James 4:14. If we desire, pursue, embrace the trappings of the world, we will find our arms are empty when we stand before God. But if we hold the things of time lightly so we may rather cling to the truth of the Lord, so we can hold fast to Jesus, so we may share our knowledge of Him with others who dwell in this tabernacle of flesh, then we will be eternally rich!

We will have indeed, proven that “good and perfect and acceptable will of God.” We will indeed have accrued to ourselves the treasure of Heaven which is eternal.