What’s the most important thing you own? Is it something expensive like your smartphone? Or is it something more personal like things that used to belong to your parents? We all have stuff that we’d hate to lose.

But most of the things we own can easily get broken, lost or stolen. So Matthew 6 tells us to have a special focus—not on things that will end up getting thrown away, but on those that will last forever.

When my mum died, she didn’t leave lots of stuff behind. She was much more focused on the “treasures” she was storing up in heaven through how she lived (VV.19-20). I remember how much she loved God and served Him in quiet ways: caring for her family, teaching children in Sunday school, looking after the lonely, sitting with a young mother who had lost her baby. And she prayed. Even after she lost her sight and had to get around in a wheelchair, she kept on loving and praying for others.

Our real treasure isn’t measured in what we have—but in who we love and look after each day.

By: Cindy Hess Kasper

To Pray About . . .

Dear Father, help me to choose to focus on things that will last forever. I want to spend my time looking out for the people I meet each day.