Pursue Your Treasure By Scott Rodin

Pursuing Your Treasure in 2019

When it comes to treasure, sometimes the shortest and simplest words of Jesus are the most profoundly challenging. Consider this well-known teaching of Jesus,

“where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

Your Pursuit

As we begin 2019, it’s a good time to consider the treasure we are pursuing. Even just nine days into the new year, it’s likely we can already name the treasures that are driving us. They may be noble such as organizational success, ministry growth, achieving strategic goals and financial stability. If we are honest, some may be less noble like safeguarding our reputation, holding on to our anger, advancing our own agenda or outperforming our peers.

Whatever is on our list, those things we define as our treasures are what will drive us in 2019. And where our treasure is, our heart will follow. As leaders in ministry or any other field, these opening days of a new year are ripe with options of what we will define as our treasure. For that reason, this is both an opportunistic and dangerous time of year.

Loyalties and Allegiances

In the verses preceding Matthew 6:21, Jesus discusses our loyalties, our allegiances. He makes the rather stunning statement that pursuing treasure is an all or nothing proposition. That is, we cannot pursue three or four treasures at the same time. Because this is a heart issue, one treasure will dominate all others to such a degree that we will deny, even hate the alternatives in a headlong pursuit of the treasure that has captured our heart.

According to Jesus, defining our treasure is the most important decision we will make, both for us personally, and for the people we lead and the organizations we serve. That one decision alone will impact everything we do in 2019. As Christian leaders the stakes could not be higher.

What then should be our treasure in 2019?

True Treasure

If we are called to lead and serve in God’s kingdom for His glory, can our sole treasure be anything else but Christ Himself?

If so, what would it look like for each of us, in our personal and professional lives, to pursue Christ as our sole treasure in 2019? How would that pursuit impact the way we set goals, raise money, plan strategy, manage people, implement programs and measure success?

These are critical questions for steward leaders. With Christ as our treasure, we must set aside all of the counterfeit forms of success vying for our hearts. As we do, as our allegiance becomes focused on one master, the path ahead will become clearer, our motives will get disentangled, our metrics will pursue kingdom outcomes and God will get the glory.

Here is a clear description of what this pursuit looks like.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

May we, in our great joy, set aside every fraudulent treasure and make 2019 an unequivocal pursuit of Christ alone in all we do.

Happy New Year!

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Scott Rodin  is president of The Steward’s Journey and Kingdom Life Publishing. He also runs Rodin Consulting, Inc. He is a Senior Fellow of the Association of Biblical Higher Education and is past board chair of ChinaSource and the Evangelical Environmental Network.

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