"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

Jesus’ words in verse 21 are about the relationship between our treasure and our hearts. Though the obvious context appears to simply be about money, the word treasure expands the meaning and application of these words to everything we treasure—or that is important to us. Keep that in mind as you continue reading.

Jesus’ words are frequently mixed up in our minds. Note that Jesus said:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

He did not say:

For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.

It is true that whatever we hold dear in our hearts, we are likely to spent/invest our money on. But that is not what Jesus said. What He said was, wherever we put our money, that will become more dear to our hearts. For example, I may not care a bit about the Acme Widget Company. But if I invest my life savings on the Acme Widget Company, the Acme Widget Company will quickly be more dear to my heart.

These words of Jesus are on the heels of His words about investing our treasured resources. Jesus has instructed us not to invest ourselves more in the fleeting interests of this world that is passing away, than in the eternal kingdom of Heaven.

Some, even believers, may not care that much about investing in the eternal kingdom of Heaven. Jesus’ investment counsel is to put more of our treasures in Heaven. The result will be that our hearts become more concerned about Heaven when we invest our resources (including, but not limited to, money) there.

To recap, while it is true that the more heavenly our hearts are, the more we will invest our resources there; but what Jesus said was, the more we invest our treasures in Heaven, the more our hearts will become heavenly.