In recent months I was caught up in a cycle of spending: cute boutique clothes, the latest trendy gadget on Temu or Shein, and Amazon’s Cyber Monday deals. Like a donkey following a carrot, I was hooked on whatever flashy item was dangled before me. I knew that my spending was often out of hand and not honoring to God and that my time on social media was a detriment to my relationship with my Lord and Savior, yet I held on to the spoils of my obsessions.
As God is wont to do, he continued drawing me back to himself and pointing out my idolatry, and Scripture began to speak to my wayward soul.
Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If I’m honest, I know that my heart was wrapped up in material possessions and seeking approval from others. But God has begun to open up a truth in me: to please God, I have to forsake all others.
The truth is that we may say with our lips that we love the Lord and that he is our treasure, yet our hearts may be far from him. In such times, we need to heed Paul’s warning in Philippians 2:12 to “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling.” Honoring God with our time and our money is not a work that will bring about salvation; it is, however, an indicator of a true believer, for “faith without deeds is useless” (James 2:20).
I began to realize the extent of my sin before God, and I had a choice: to remain in my sin and tightly clutch the spoils of disobedience, or to forsake all that I had for a greater treasure.
God’s grace often leads me to prostrate myself before him, and I soon began to confess that I was, as Jeremiah puts it, digging “broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jer. 2:13)
In the days since, God has softened my hardened heart and renewed a right spirit within me. He has, once again, become the treasure that I seek: the living water that satisfies.
As Jesus himself in parable said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matt. 13:44). Child of God, for the joy of knowing and treasuring Christ, repent of your sin of idolatry. And may the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7).
About the Author
Sindy Fields is a high school teacher and community college professor of English. She resides in Pennington Gap, Va., with her husband, Freddie, and their children. She attends the First Baptist Church of Pennington Gap, where she teaches Sunday school and helps lead the youth group.
