We shall meditate together on the following verses: Luke 12:32-34. It reads,
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Meditation must lead to specific action. If it will not lead to obedience, then it is not meditation. It is not an exercise that leaves you with good ideas to keep in the head. A man must go from meditation, saying, “There is this thing that I must do this day. There is this area of disobedience, which is going to be put right in this manner. The things must be specific enough in such a way that when they are done, they are done, and such that when they are not done, they are not done.
Treating things in a general way can never lead to conviction and repentance. It can never lead to fruit worthy of repentance. I was meditating and reached the place where the people asked John the Baptist what should be done. He replied that the one who had two coats should give one to the person who did not have. I had two suits – one that was bought eleven years ago, and the other, a brand new suit which I had just bought from Germany.
I therefore had two suits and the message was asking me to give one to the person who had none. I simply had to obey. There was no room for speculation. I told myself that if I had to give one of the suits away, it had to be the newer one, in order to be honest. I had to give like one giving to the Lord Jesus Christ. That same day, I parcelled the newer suit and gave it away.
The issues that come forth from meditation are not things in the air. They are things for practical application. If meditation does not lead to practical action, it is not meditation. Why? That which is not specific does not make a man move forward in his walk with God. It only raises things that will stand against him on the day of judgement.
A man cannot meditate on Luke 12:32-34 and not ask, “What must I sell? What is in a condition in which it can be sold?” Furthermore, you must decide where you are going to invest the proceeds of the sales, because the verse commands that when you sell, you should give alms. The instructions are very clear. You either obey or you don’t.
The passage continues to say, “Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted.” This means that there are two places for treasures – in heaven that does not fail and on earth that fails. Therefore, a man asks, “What is my treasure? How much of it is in heaven? How much of it is on earth?” A man simply has to face the reality of things.
For example, my salary is my treasure – how much of it has been sent to heaven since I believed? If I earn fifty thousand, it is easy to calculate how much of it is already in heaven. If I have been a believer for five years, how much have I sent to heaven during those five years? How much was spent on earth? That which is given to the Lord, or to the poor (the poorest being those without the gospel) is what I have in heaven. Figures are very honest. You cannot cheat.
The Lord says that the treasure in heaven will not fail. This implies that the treasure on earth will fail. A man can then look at his treasure on earth and write against it, “This one will fail.” For that which is in heaven, where neither thieves nor moth destroy, he writes, “This will not fail.” This is the hard reality of things.
Finally, you must ask yourself, “Where then is my heart?” The answer is: “Where my treasure is.” Without noise, you know where your heart is. The wonderful thing about the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ is that you do not need to be a philosopher in order to understand it. Everything is very simple. If my treasure is in heaven, my heart is in heaven. If my treasure is on earth, my heart is on earth. There is no confusion at all.
The Lord is saying that the heart and the treasure are in the same place. He is saying that they cannot be separated. The heart simply follows and clings to the treasure. This is what the Master said, and there is no way of running away from it. You know very well where your heart is. It does not depend on how much you dance or sing or on what you say. It is where your treasure is.
You can then decide whether your heart is going to continue being on earth on in heaven. If an honest evaluation says that your heart is on earth, you can decide that things must change, and what you must do to change the situation. State things out clearly. The things you state must be such as can move your heart from earth to heaven. Start immediately, because when you have not obeyed God, you are blocked.
