The Treasure Inside of You

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. (Luke 6:45)

Jesus had a way of taking something most people never considered and laying it out in front of them so they could not ignore it. That is exactly what He did in Luke chapter six. He looked at a crowd of people and told them something that should have stopped every single one of them in their tracks. He explained that what comes out of your life is connected to what is in your heart. What is actually in there?

The word good in this verse is the Greek word agathos, meaning a beneficial man or woman, someone who is genuinely a benefit to themselves and to the people around them. And then He told us where that goodness comes from. It does not come from talent, willpower, or a nice personality. It comes from the thesauros or the deposit, the treasure, the wealth, that is inside the heart, the cardia. What fills your heart determines what comes out of your life.

Think about that seriously for a moment. Jesus said that everything you produce, the words you speak, the decisions you make, the way you handle pressure, people, and problems—all of it flows from whatever has been deposited in your heart. If you have the Word of God planted deep in there, goodness, truth, and righteousness come out. If what has been deposited is fear, bitterness, the world's way of thinking, or nothing of substance at all, that is what gets produced. This means that what you allow into your heart is one of the most important decisions you make every single day. You do not drift into being a benefit to yourself and others. That kind of life is built, deliberately, by what you put in. Take a real look at what is in your heart because what is in there is coming out, whether you are thinking about it or not.

Practical Application

Take some time to ask the Holy Spirit to show you what's really been filling your heart. You don't have to overhaul everything today. Just put one good thing from God’s Word in. And then protect that deposit from getting crowded out because what you carry on the inside eventually shows up on the outside.

Proverbs 4:23; James 3:10