The Heart Issue

“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”

Luke 12:21

Often time people will listen to sermons and listen to Bible stories and hear the message that you can’t be wealthy to be a Christian.  It is easy to do with all the references of “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5) and here in this parable Jesus is telling this man that he was a fool for storing up his things.

A member of my small group said that really this is a heart issue. If you come to a place where you are only worried about yourself and have no concern for those around you, then you become a fool. Later in this gospel, Jesus says, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:34).  We already know that “(Christ) abides within us.” (1John 3:24b) Christ is not concerned with how much we have or how much we spend.  He is concerned with what our heart is feeling while doing it.  Does the heart that he abides in think first of the needy and homeless?  Does our heart first think of what the needs of our church are before we make a time commitment to an outside project?

See, when we accepted the fact that Jesus died for our sins, we accepted Him to dwell inside us.  We asked him to shape our actions around His idea for our lives.  We need to spend some quiet time to listen and feel for Jesus’ presence in us.  Listen for the quiet voice that helps us, calms us, and makes the world okay again.  He is there and He wants you to listen more.  Perhaps we need to look at our hearts and see if there is something from keeping it from feeling as Christ would have it feel.  Do we have a heart issue?