For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:21
We can all tell what the important things in life are for people we know and meet. How many times have we heard someone say, “His heart is in his (fill in the blank).” And that blank word may be music, art, writing, or in any of an untold number of endeavors or other vocations; sometimes it can even be people. Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:21 describe the issue in no uncertain terms. To rephrase it we could say, “You can tell what is important to someone by seeing what they hold dear." "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” - Proverbs 4:23.
How often have we been with someone who is an avid NASCAR or football or music fanatic? How often have we wondered if they just couldn’t talk about something else for a change? From their logo-inscribed caps, mugs, tee shirts, and other paraphernalia, they seem to ooze with their preoccupations. One look and we know what they hold dear.
It’s not that these diversions and distractions are evil in themselves What makes them sinful is the human predilection toward making them our ‘all in all’ that becomes a slippery slope towards idolatry. And that is what becomes dangerous to our hearts: when we allow such idolatry to distract us from our real purposes here as children of God. “Question 1: What is the chief and highest end of man? Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.” - Westminster Larger Catechism (1648). We are to worship the one true God of the Holy Scriptures and it is sinful if we do not. This is no hidden command that needs to be revealed through divination or prophecy. This is the command of God. “You shall have no other gods before me.” - Exodus 20:3.
The distraction from what we know is our duty is a fruit of the Satanic itch: to make anything but the proper worship of God our chief and highest end. Satan litters the road ahead of us with his tricks and trinkets to draw us off. With the pretty and the desirable, he fools us into believing we may take any road, even the road to perdition. Anything to distract us from the proper worship of God. “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 11:3.
For many or most, I would contend, the path to those things we desire most, those things we consider to be the greatest importance in our lives do not matter much. When we consider how significant things like hobbies and ‘free time’ are to most people it’s a wonder that our considerations about our souls and God get any play time at all. We pontificate about what we hold to be of value in our lives, all the time completely ignoring the gravity of attending to our spiritual needs. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” - Matthew 6:33.
We must remember that inevitably we will listen to one of two masters: Jesus or the devil. There’s no third alternative. It’s Christ or Satan. Period! Our Sundays (and any other day) can be spent in meditation and the things of God or we can spend them at the beach or a sporting event. It doesn’t matter if we fail to discern the difference; God knows the difference and God will judge. “For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.” - Matthew 16:27.
At that time how many of us will cry out, “have we been judged because we were distracted from Your glory?” Yes, a hellish distraction has brought God’s perfect judgment down upon those whose hearts have no thoughts about their eternal souls.
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