It’s amazing how quickly treasures on earth can be taken from you. In just one quick moment last Wednesday morning, I was in a car accident and totaled my car. After gathering my belongings and getting all the insurance paperwork taken care of this morning, I said goodbye to “Ruby.” This car that I bought less than a year ago was very special to me, though it was only an object. On a very small scale, it reminds me of the story of Job, a man who lost every possession he owned and his entire family except his wife – all in one day.

Yet God is sovereign and controls all situations – even the ones that are terrible and hard to accept. If the things in this world were all I lived for, this would be a strange, twisted thought. It IS difficult to understand why God would allow or even cause bad things to happen, but we must trust what we know about our God – that He is faithful and He is trustworthy. No matter what happens, He is in control of it, and we can trust Him because His character does not change.

Losing earthly possessions is a reminder that we need to fix our eyes and our hearts on what is eternal, and it is there that we find the treasures that we can never lose.

“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

Reflections on John 16:25-33:

“In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God” (vs. 26-27). Because Jesus came, we can have salvation and be reconciled to God. We can talk to God in Christ’s name if we believe in Jesus because we are reconciled to God the Father and He loves us.

The disciples still did not understand – even though they thought they did. They believed that Jesus came from God and were excited because they wanted Him to rule. But Jesus foretells their fickle faith – they will scatter, leaving Jesus alone (vs. 32a). But Jesus’ security was not dependent on how many people surrounded Him or stuck with Him. –>

“Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me” (vs. 32b). Jesus wants us to look to the things that are eternal, not the things that are temporal and of this world. “I have said these things to you that in Me you may have PEACE. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (vs. 33).