Imagine you were going to live in an apartment for one year and you had to buy furniture for it. But after a year, you had to move back home and leave all the furniture there. How much money would you spend on that furniture versus what you have in your home?
What would change if you started to view this life on earth through a similar lens?
Where we are now is not our forever home, so our aim in life should not be to make ourselves comfortable. Instead, Jesus calls us to pursue eternal rewards through generosity.
This is not a call to forsake worldly happiness and to live in misery, it's a call to deny ourselves the things that bring temporary happiness and invest our resources in ways that yield eternal rewards. Or, as Randy Alcorn says, "you can't take it with you, but you can send it ahead."
1 Corinthians 3:13-15 correlates, "Each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire."
Being generous with our time, talents, and treasures is the key to storing up rewards that will withstand the test of fire. Jesus tells us that this pursuit leads to Kingdom-mindedness.
As with all things, Jesus is concerned with the state of our hearts: "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21)
Our heart directs our actions and our actions direct our hearts.
If your heart is greedy and longs for material things, that will change how you see the world around you. It will give you eyes that covet and are greedy and seek happiness in worldly things. This is not what God wants for us! He wants for us to be otherworldly and different, not seeking happiness in material things.
This does not mean that we should give so much away so that we become beggars who can't feed ourselves. Work is good! (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12)
God desires for us to work hard and provide for ourselves and our families. This also does not mean that we shouldn't plan or have financial goals.
It DOES mean that we should lean toward radical generosity.
We are to actively trust God with our futures. Consider Luke 12:16, "And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
This teaching flies in the face of the American Dream!
If your lives, efforts, and dreams are all aimed at acquiring enough wealth so that we can kick our feet up and relax, we have missed the Kingdom of God!
We are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and GIVE instead.
2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake, He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich."
We can put this into action by denying ourselves things we want and giving that money instead. Or, if you come into some unexpected money, consider passing it along to the church, an organization you support, or an individual or family you know could use it.
Now is not the time to kick our feet up! We are not home yet. Let's be generous now, so we can enjoy the rewards in heaven forever.