Due to differences in upbringing, experiences and backgrounds, each of us has developed a different level of resilience. Likewise, everyone has their own learned strategies for dealing with problems, losses, or setbacks in life.
Every person has their own unique, acquired values, hopes, and resources in life. Jesus called them “your treasure,” where your heart will be, and also “the light.” In Matthew 6:21-22, it says: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.”
These are the things we focus on and rely on to give our lives meaning, a sense of belonging, a sense of self-worth, and security.
That is why it is important to be aware of what your true treasures, your hopes, and your values are! These can be false values, desires, or feelings that Satan has planted in our minds or that we have adopted from our society, which is cut off from God and His ways.
People who are separated from God have different, mostly false values, ideals, and hopes, and they have different physical, emotional and spiritual resources to achieve their desired goals.
Consequently, they have different breaking points when their hopes or resources fail. People may or may not be aware of their limitations. They are relegated to the subconscious or they are denied. For many, these limitations on their resources have never been put to the test.
The experience of failure that triggers fear, hopelessness, or depression can be different for one person than for another.
The triggers can be very different: for example, one person may not be able to achieve or maintain the desired financial status. For another person, it may be the loss or inability to have a best friend or an ideal spouse.
Another trigger may be not getting the desired job or not maintaining a great position in life. Other causes include the loss of health or the prospect of death.
Other causes of negative feelings include the loss of physical attractiveness or beauty, the loss of certain material possessions, or the loss of children, as well as something bad happening to them.
It is not wrong to want to be loved. It is not wrong to enjoy a respected status or have possessions, or to achieve a certain security for ourselves and our children.
All of these things are legitimate and good when they are obtained in accordance with God’s laws, when we can afford them, and when we use them properly.
In the Bible, Jesus teaches: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25).
Jesus taught that there is a purpose to our lives that goes beyond physical life. All the gifts or opportunities we may have in this physical existence, whether they be human, physical, or other benefits, are temporary and transitory.
They are only tools that serve to achieve something higher and eternal, which is to understand the true meaning of our own existence and to develop a godly character.
This purpose in life is so great and important that Jesus taught us not to fear what people might do to us if we follow His ways. The worst they can do is threaten or end our physical life, but they do not have the power to prevent us from gaining eternal life.
Physical possessions or opportunities should be valued and cared for as long as they exist. But they are not forever. They are not the real meaning of life. Yet all of us who have erred in times past have turned them into that!
Current developments show that more and more people are placing their hearts, devotion, and sense of self-worth entirely on people, physical possessions, or sensual pleasures.
At the same time, the consequences of Satan’s influence in the lives of individuals and nations are clearly evident: war, disease, economic instability, family breakdown, crime, and violence. We have never experienced a time before when all the transitory things and hopes have been so endangered even though people have placed their trust and hope in them!]
It is time to ask ourselves what the most important values in our lives are.
All of this can be found in the Bible. It reveals the answers we have been searching for.
Initial translation: Daniel Blasinger