Luke 12:33-34 “Now, go and sell what you have and give to those in need; you will be making deposits in your account in heaven, an account that will never be taken from you. Your gifts will become a secure and unfailing treasure, deposited in heaven forever. Where you deposit your treasure, that is where you fix your thoughts—and your heart will long to be there also.” Today's episode reminds us how important it is to be aware of where our hearts and minds are. Where we deposit our treasure is where we fix our thoughts, and it is also where our hearts will long to be. So, where are we depositing our treasures? Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Our Heavenly Bank
Luke 12:33-34 “Now, go and sell what you have and give to those in need; you will be making deposits in your account in heaven, an account that will never be taken from you. Your gifts will become a secure and unfailing treasure, deposited in heaven forever. Where you deposit your treasure, that is where you fix your thoughts—and your heart will long to be there also.”
Yesterday after school, I went to the church near me as it is always open. I wanted to sit there with the Lord and ask Him what he wanted me to teach about in mentoring tonight. I took out my Bible and asked Him to give me a scripture verse. I don’t do this too often, but I asked for a verse. I told the Lord I was going to just open the Bible, and I asked Him to show me a verse on the page I just happened to open up to that would either be relevant for mentoring or for life in general.
I picked a random part of the Bible to open up to, and it happened to be Luke 12. What is amazing to me is that there is a whole section on the page I opened up to that is called in my Passion Translation, “Don’t Worry.” the theme for mentoring this month is “Be Not Afraid.” I love it when the Lord does that. He just has you open up the Bible to the perfect page. What was interesting to me is that I have heard and read that section several times before, and yet today, a few things stood out to me that I don’t remember ever hearing or reading before. One of those things is the verse above.
I have heard before that Jesus wants us to sell what we have and give to those in need. He tells this to the young man who asks what he needs to do to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. However, I have never heard of it as making deposits into our account in heaven. I love that imagery. It reminded me of when I was reading a book one time. I think it might have been The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, but I am not sure. Whatever book it was, it talked about how we need to make emotional deposits into our loved ones. The idea of "making regular deposits into our loved ones' emotional banks" means consistently building a positive relationship with your loved one through kind gestures, praise, and supportive actions so that when you need to say something negative or critical, they are more likely to trust your intentions and not feel overly hurt because of the strong foundation of positive interactions you've already established; essentially, it's like having a "reserve" of positive experiences that can buffer against occasional negative feedback.
This is what I thought of when it comes to our heavenly bank. We can store our treasures up there as they won’t do us any good down here. We can’t take our treasures with us. We can’t take our material possessions with us. It makes sense that we could sell those things to make a deposit into our heavenly bank. To be honest, after having this thought, I started to wonder if it was the same as with our kids. We make regular deposits into our heavenly bank so that when we do something bad, we are still ok because we have all the other deposits to cover this thing we just did. However, I don’t think this is what the Lord is talking about. If this was the case, then it would be as if we were earning our way into heaven. It would be as if we needed to do more good than bad, and there was a scale in heaven that was making sure we put in more good than the withdrawal due to the bad behavior.
I know this is not the case because we don’t have to earn our way into heaven. Jesus died on the cross for us so that we may be saved. Our getting into heaven isn’t based on how many good things we do on Earth vs. how many bad things we do on Earth. After realizing this, I wondered why the Lord highlighted this section for me and why he brought that story up about depositing into our loved ones’ banks. First, I think he reminded me of that story because I think we all needed that reminder that it is important to continually be investing and depositing into our loved ones banks. Second, I think God highlighted this section for me because of the last line.
The last line of the verse above says, “Where you deposit your treasure, that is where you fix your thoughts—and your heart will long to be there also.” I think God wanted us to take some time today and think about where we are depositing our treasures. Where we deposit our treasure is where you fix your thoughts. So, where are your thoughts fixed? Are they fixed on the Lord, or are they fixed on the world? Are they fixed on all God has done for you, or are they fixed on all the things going wrong in your life? What about our time? Time is the most valuable resource we have. Where are we spending our time? Are we making regular deposits of our time with the Lord, or are we spending our time elsewhere? For me, I feel as though I am not spending as much time as I would like to with God. I am allowing myself to be distracted by TV and other things.
The verse above says, “Where you deposit your treasure, that is where you fix your thoughts—and your heart will long to be there also.” So, if we are depositing our time elsewhere, then that is where our thoughts will be and, subsequently, where our hearts will long to be. Where does your heart long to be? I believe my heart longs to be in heaven with God, and yet that is not what my actions would do. That is not where I seem to be making most of my deposits of time. Maybe today, we could all look at our time and examine where we are spending the majority of it. We can look to see where our thoughts are and where our hearts are. Is there anything we need to change to be more in alignment with this verse and with the will of the Lord?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening. Lord, help us to focus our eyes, hearts, and minds on you. Help us to put our treasures into the heavenly bank where they will be safe. Help us to make regular deposits of our time into that same bank. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Remember, if you want to check out mentoring tonight for our Be Not Afraid series, you can just email me, and I will send the Zoom link. I look forward to meeting you here again with a witness tomorrow morning. Remember, Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My people need to know that they should not seek the living among the dead. My word alone is life. The word that the world gives brings no life.”