True Treasure

12.12.2019

“True Treasure”

By Dave Dussault

Northpoint Prayer Ministries

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” – Matthew 13:44-46

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:19-21

Hello Church Family,

We live for a different world.

God made us to live, but the world we live in is dying. Jesus died to this dying world and rose again to a new one, which will never pass away. The Christian life—living by faith in Christ—is a life of dying to this world and living for the new world Christ created when He rose again. Living by faith in Christ means daily releasing the things that tie us to this world and receiving the eternal treasures God promised us in Christ. We let go of this world in order to gain the next.

We live for the love of Christ.

Jesus is our first love, our true treasure, the one essential thing in life. He is the Author of life and the Creator of the world. No one matters more in this world. Jesus Christ is the One who loved us and traveled the infinite distance from heaven to earth to make us His own. He became a man, died in our place to pay a debt we owe but could never repay. All things in heaven and earth belong to Him, so by possessing Christ, the believer owns all things. What else could we desire besides Him?

“Prayer is pursuing Christ.

Prayer brings the reality of heaven into our daily lives. It makes the next world part of this one by making Christ our goal on earth and His kingdom the essence of all we seek. Answered prayer is receiving Him.

The Holy Spirit is God in us.

He is our present realization of the ultimate blessing of being with Christ forever. He’s our “portion,” the present experience of a future reality bought by Christ. God’s Spirit is Emmanuel in the believer’s life today.

Faith that overcomes the world has a “come what may” quality to it. It trusts God when He takes away the things of this world and expects Him to replace them with better things—in His time. As we pursue the tasks and challenges of this life, we look to Christ to take care of us and provide for us, knowing that the last thing we’ll release to God is our life on this earth, and trusting that the first thing we’ll receive afterward is life forever with Him.

Expectant prayer embraces the good and bad in life, accepting the fact that this world is not our home. We evaluate what happens in this life based on something other than the good we do or don’t experience on earth. It prays, “not my will but yours be done,” as Christ did in Gethsemane, with the same faith that led Jesus to the cross to conquer death. This prayer and this faith led the apostles to follow Christ in life and in death. This faith built the church. This faith sees what isn’t but what will be. This faith obtains things through prayer, accomplishes God’s work on earth, and receives the hope of heaven.

True Treasure pays eternal interest. A life lived for the love of Christ reaps ten-thousand-fold interest. It claims Jesus as our greatest Treasure and understands that He is more precious than anything this world has to offer. It’s the hope of the coming year, as we live, pray, hope, and aspire for the praise of His glory.

In Him,

Dave Dussault

Northpoint Prayer Ministries