Treasure Your Treasure. 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

Football players learn early protect the ball. Linebackers will punch the ball to knock it from your hands—and if you drop it, you will probably not be the one who picks it up. You MUST hold on tight or you will lose the ball and hurt your team.

When you find something you love, hold on tight! This goes for relationships, work positions, and more. Never let your anger or envy or pettiness or laziness or lust destroy something in your life that is a source of true joy. If you are bearing fruit for the Lord, PROTECT THE FRUIT-BEARING TREE like it’s your great treasure–because it is!

A friend we’ll call Tom was upset with something in a sermon and complained about it to me. I disagreed, but when I could not persuade him, I tried reminding Tom of how happy he and his wife had been at our church in recent years.  “You are so involved, so plugged-in. You’ve been posting about it every Sunday afternoon, telling the world about the cute kids you’re teaching in Sunday school.  Don’t put all that at risk.”

But there was no convincing him and Tom drove that bus right off the cliff. He and his wife have only been to church once in the two years since and only to support some friends. Tom did not cling tightly to the great things happening around him at church. He failed to treasure his treasure.  I know he would argue he took a stand for doctrine, but even if his position were correct, the point was trivial and not worth destroying something great.

You see, here’s the thing. You have an enemy. And while you are busy critiquing your pastor’s sermon, the devil is busy filling you with righteous indignation. Suddenly you’re fuming over something trivial and you let it destroy relationships. Marriages are destroyed this way every day—not by huge betrayals like adultery, at least not at first. It starts with fighting about who will wash the dishes, and then resentment metastasizes throughout the marriage.  Relationship cancer begins with anger over trivial things—and the anger blinds you to the danger threatening the one thing that matters most.

Paul says, “Hold fast to what is good” 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

Henry Blackaby put it this way:

“Hold fast to what is good, or the world will take it away. Satan is the relentless enemy of good. When he saw that what God gave Adam and Eve was good, he set about to take it away from them. When he saw that King David was pleasing to God, he attempted to destroy David’s relationship with God. Never take the good in your life for granted. If you do not hold on to it firmly, it may be lost.”[1]

Cling tightly to what is good. Protect it from your own pride and anger, or it will be destroyed. Winning the battle is not worth it if it means losing the war.

ΑΩ

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[1] Henry & Richard Blackaby, EXPERIENCING GOD DAY BY DAY.