Winning the Lottery
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
So here’s my confession. I do lots of daydreaming. It goes with the territory, I suppose. I am so madly in love with the Lord that I am constantly thinking about Him, talking about Him, writing about Him, and loving, praising, worshiping, and serving Him. I am devoted to Him and ministry 24-7 and lead an extraordinarily simple lifestyle unencumbered by the cares of this world. Consequently, except when I’m out ministering to people or running errands which often turns into ministry opportunities anyway, I spend lots of time on my own with God. And given I have an exceedingly short attention span, nothing, not even my prayers or study of God’s Word, involves staying focused on anything for more than usually minutes. The good news is my focus is usually on God, and that even as my mind bee bops around, my heart and overall focus are His. Even my daydreaming is most often about Him, and with Him, as I continually seek His face and listen for His voice as I learn to be led by His Spirit breath by breath.
One day I found myself considering what I’d do if a zillion dollars came into my life. After decades of throwing money at anything I desired, and having once been blessed with much of it, from housing to makeup to food to vacations to clothes to bars and alcohol and furniture and books and anything my little spoiled heart desired, with barely an ounce of gratitude mind you, it was wild that in less than two minutes I had my answer to how I would spend zillions of dollars if I had it. With an annual regular income of $9000, compared with all the money I once had, and given I hadn’t been away for even one night in 5.5 years because of the dogs in my care, and that I had been cutting my own hair for several years and my thrift shop clothes were getting pretty worn down, and that I hadn’t been out for a meal since my mom visited over six months ago, and the list goes on, the answer should have been obvious.
The answer? Without any hesitation. I would buy Bibles and distribute them to a perishing world in dire need of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I would get the supplies to step up the printing of my free Gospel tracts and devotionals to distribute. I have almost nothing in my house or life except what I use in ministry including for the special needs and senior rescued dogs in my ministry’s care. Because I am so in love with the Lord that my treasure is no longer of this world. It’s Him.
Is He yours?