Lay Up for Yourselves Treasures in Heaven

Lay Up for Yourselves Treasures in Heaven

Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:20. The Pharisees did all their works to be seen by men. Matt. 23:5. They had already received their reward. They sought their own, making sure they received their reward. The opposite of this is to do all your works before God and hide them from men—not letting the right hand know what the left hand is doing. Then God will make sure we will receive a reward. It is waiting for us. He has hidden it in heaven.

We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. Eph. 2:10. We want to serve God, but we don’t know what to do. We think up something and devise something. People strive and wear themselves out; there is no blessing over their work; they have no joy in it, and they grow tired. They did not find the works that God had prepared for them. They were so close at hand, but perhaps the works were so lowly that they overlooked them. The reason is that they sought their own. They considered other people and the reward, and consequently God seemed so far away. God can lead us when we present ourselves as a sacrifice. We find the works God has prepared for us when we are a sacrifice—when we do not seek our own. We only receive a reward—treasures in heaven—when we walk in the works God has prepared for us. Only the fruits of the works, which God has prepared, are eternal. The fruits of the works we invent will be destroyed. The more we strive and wear ourselves out, the more we will lag behind.

I assume the responsibility—I am lord—whenever I devise and choose my own way. This fills me with anxiety, and I have no reason to expect a reward. I am a servant when I am a sacrifice—when I am led—and as such I am free from anxiety and will receive a reward.