Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
Matthew 6:19–20 (NIV)
Jesus teaches an extended sermon on a hillside overlooking Galilee, delivering weighty truths, including this: One of the biggest traps in life is for us to be ensnared by attachments.
We can cling so tightly to possessions, achievements, and even people that they become heavy chains around the neck that bind us to endless suffering. Jesus knows exactly who He is speaking to: people whose wealth was stored in garments, metals, or grain. But textiles are vulnerable to moths, metals are susceptible to rust and corrosion, and grain is subject to theft.
Jesus’s message is clear: Don’t become too attached to these things. Valuable though they may be, you can’t build your treasure with them. Anything you have to bury, hide, or protect with anxiety is too fragile to sustain your soul. “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” Written in the present imperative, it carries this meaning: “I know you are already doing it.”
Then comes the invitation that frees the heart: “Store up treasure in heaven where there can be no theft, no rust, no corrosion.” This treasure accumulates wealth in the heart, the mind, and the soul.
Child of God, your material losses don’t have to be your spiritual losses. Jesus is calling you to resist the pull of a possession-crazed culture and instead model a new ethic, a new law that is evangelistic to those needing to know that the Lord can help break unhealthy attachments.
Here is the truth that reaches into our everyday lives: Don’t be attached to anything that becomes more valuable to you than your relationship with Jesus. Some things you have to hold lightly.
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Matthew 7:13 (NIV)
Jesus draws an unmistakable picture in Matthew 7: There are only two paths in this world.
One of the paths is crowded, attractive, and dangerously easy to join. He calls it the wide road. You can tell when you are tempted to do life on the wide road because it provides easy accessibility. It appears to offer a lot of comfort. There is little to no requirement for personal sacrifice. It feels good. It looks good. It is traveled by many people. And that’s the trap.
The wide road is not evil because it is fun; it is evil because it is deceptive. Don’t let the ease of the wide road lure you into a commitment to it. Ease feels like blessing. Popularity feels like affirmation. Comfort feels like confirmation. But Jesus is clear: Don’t forget where that path leads because it leads to destruction. That word in the original Greek points to loss; a stronger word is ruin.
The narrow road—following Jesus—often feels so isolating. It is not crowded. It is not popular. It does not offer applause or ease. Following Jesus comes with some difficulties, restrictions, and constrictions. But the narrow road leads somewhere the wide road never can: life. Eternal life, abundant life, true life, transformed life, kingdom life.
If it wasn’t for where it leads, I would be the first to stand and declare, “Give me that wide road, especially if it’s defined by an easy life.” The honesty of that admission shows how strong the temptation really is.
But here’s the truth: You can’t become all that Jesus intends for you to be by walking on that wide road. Ease cannot mature you. Comfort cannot strengthen you. Popularity cannot sanctify you.
So stop evaluating roads by how they feel, and start evaluating them by where they finish. The wide road ends in ruin. The narrow road ends in life. Child of God, resist the trap of the easy path. Don’t be seduced by the comfort of the crowd. Jesus is calling you to the way that shapes you, strengthens you, and leads you to life.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1 (NIV)
When you look closely at Paul’s story in Acts 23, there is a striking tension. On one hand, religious and political powers are conspiring to destroy him. On the other hand, those same powers are being used to protect him. The same Roman system that will one day execute Paul is, for this moment, his shield.
That tension raises a deeper spiritual principle. Part of growing in faith often comes by discerning the Lord’s will within the contradictions, not from outside them. This means at some point you have to develop the spiritual discipline to consecrate your contradictions.
It’s a contradiction that God uses the Roman military, the very empire that would later execute Him, as an instrument for his protection. Here’s a point to think on: Even hostile people can be assigned to bless you. God’s protection often comes from unexpected sources.
Not all of God’s blessings are going to come to you through your friends. Some of them will actually be delivered to your doorstep through people who push you, challenge you, or even oppose you. God can take a system that was not built with you in mind and still use it as a vehicle to get you where He wants you to go.
That is why you cannot live your whole life trying to distance yourself from every contradiction. At some point, you must bring those contradictions to God. You place them on the altar and say, “Lord, I do not understand this, but I am going to trust that You are at work inside it.” That is what it means to consecrate your contradictions.
When you do that, you start to see what Paul’s story is teaching. There is no place, no plot, no plan, no pain, no power that is stronger than the protective hand of our sovereign God. Therefore, don’t limit where you expect God’s help to come from because He can use anybody. He can use any system. He can use any circumstance—even those people around you who seem like enemies to you and your faith.
So today, instead of asking God to remove every contradiction, ask Him to consecrate them.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:2 (NIV)
Following Jesus will always place your life in tension with the world around you. That tension is not a mistake; it is part of your calling. Countercultural living with and for God creates a different set of allegiances, alternative values, transformed perspectives, deliberate practices, ethical distinctiveness, and prophetic witness.
In other words, salvation rewrites your citizenship. Peter essentially calls believers “resident aliens.” We are in this world, but we are no longer of this world. You still move through earthly systems, neighborhoods, and workplaces, but something in you no longer belongs to the environment you occupy.
Every place you show up, you see things differently. You hear things differently. You interpret things differently. You encounter things differently. You react to things differently. Why? Because your mind has been renewed, your values reshaped, your heart reoriented toward the kingdom.
And when that happens, your presence becomes a witness. “Sanctified” is when you’ve become so countercultural that when you walk into a room, it creates holy ground. If no one feels that shift when you enter the room, it might not be because of how toxic they are but because of how spiritually anemic you are. A sanctified life should create conviction in the spaces it touches—not by force, but by presence.
That is the essence of countercultural discipleship. You once blended into the crowd; now, even if you wanted to, you can’t talk like you used to, you don’t go where you used to, and what you used to think was fun isn’t fun anymore. That change is the evidence of the Spirit at work.
So the invitation today is simple and challenging: embrace your difference. Trust your counterculturalism. Don’t apologize for God’s impact on your life. Don’t shrink back so others remain comfortable. You were not saved to assimilate; you were saved to illuminate.
But when the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul.
Acts 23:16 (NIV)
To get Paul from Jerusalem to Rome, God uses a plot orchestrated by 40 men who were so committed to killing Paul that they refused to eat or drink, having sworn an oath that they would not do either until they had successfully accomplished the deed. Their trap is simple. They wanted Paul brought out of the barracks so they could ambush him on the way to court and kill him.
This text conveys a clear message for us as we navigate life amidst the reality of traps that are always being laid for us: God’s providence always includes God’s protection. Who He saves, He protects.
What is striking is how that protection shows up. It does not appear as an angel with a flaming sword. It comes through a young man whose name we are never told. This young man is Paul’s nephew, and his existence is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture, but he becomes an instant hero with one wise decision. After overhearing the plot to kill Paul, he moved quickly, and his actions saved Paul’s life.
From that, we learn an important principle: The power of God in our lives to bless us often comes through human agency. God intervenes in many ways, and one of those ways is through other people. There are people in your life who may not have been your choice, but they are God’s assignment. God uses these people to advance our lives and to keep us in the center of His will.
God works through everyday people, and I encourage you to treat them with the gratitude that they deserve. Maybe it was a praying grandparent, a parent who didn’t give up, a teacher who believed in you when you did not believe in yourself, a friend who called at the right time. I’m so glad somebody had me on their mind enough to take the time to pray for me.
Do not dismiss the “ordinary” people around you. No relationship in your life is accidental. God’s protection can often come wearing a familiar face. Don’t overlook the fact that the people who may seem common in your life might be on divine assignment.
Thank God today for the unseen protection that has come through human hands, human counsel, and human care. You did not make it here by yourself. God has been protecting you through people all along.
