An Unseen Treasure I Have in Jesus Christ.

I have just returned from Malawi. I am different and everything around seems different. I have learned to hope, trust, need, crave, treasure, delight and love, not the seen, but the unseen.

For who hopes in what he already has or sees?
Who trusts finite things for infinite life?
Who needs many mortal things when he has one that is Immortal?
Who craves what is bitter when he has what is infinitely sweet?
Who treasures worthless things when he has but one precious Treasure?
Who delights in dark things when he has He who is Light?
Who loves this world when he can love, by grace, Love Himself?

I have learned not to settle for lesser things. I have learned not to store my treasure on earth, because an infinitely beautiful, infinitely precious, and infinitely satisfying Treasure. And He, the Treasure Himself, gave Himself to me! O what a treasure!

When I did not want Him, He gave Himself for me. This Treasure did not even look beautiful to me until He, by grace, opened my eyes to behold His true splendor. But still, even though I did nothing for Him, He gave Himself to me. His beauty comes from His glorious death and from His precious blood spilled so that I may receive Him. O what grace!

That He would not just give Himself to me, but that He left His heavenly riches, left His glory above, and paid all He had, His life, so that He could purchase me. And my price was nothing other than His death, because I had spent all of me on sin and I had received a death sentence for it. But He came down so He may purchase me from the chains of death, so that I may receive Him as my only Treasure. O the redemption!

When He opened my eyes to receive Him as my only Treasure, He told me to rid myself of the other worthless trinkets I had on my flesh. I tried to rid myself of them, but there were too many and they were too heavy for me to lift off of myself. So, He Himself cleaned my life of them, worthless and ugly things they were. And I realized how ugly and beastly they were, once He showed me Himself. O what wondrous clarity!

And now, I have no other treasure but He Himself. Whom do I have in heaven but Him? And on earth there is nothing I desire but Him. My heart and my flesh may fail, but He is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. And if my strength and portion, then He is my unseen Treasure. And if my Treasure, then my inheritance. O what undeserved riches!

I will be purely with my Treasure and Strength one day. That I would be with Him! That I, a disobedient and impure vessel, would obey and be purified so as to be with my purifier and King! O to be with Him!

That is why I look past the seen things to God, who is beyond sight.
To God, who is beyond time.
To God, who is beyond measure.
To God, who is beyond imagination.
To God, who is beyond comparison, likeness, or equal.
To God, who is beyond gracious, loving, and merciful.
To God, who is beyond holy, perfect, and pure.
To God are all things.
To God be glory forever. Amen.