What You Treasure, You Follow
Where Is Your Heart Really?
In a world obsessed with success, status, and self-gratification, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters.
Our days are filled with endless pursuits for money, recognition, comfort, and control, yet our souls often feel emptier than ever.
Jesus offers a sobering, soul-searching truth in Matthew 6:21 (KJV):
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
This powerful verse pierces through every excuse and exposes the truth: what you value most controls your heart.
👉 You might say you love God with your words, but where do your time, energy, and money go? What are you chasing when no one’s watching?
This in-depth Bible study on Matthew 6:21 will help you uncover the true condition of your heart, examine what you’re treasuring most, and realign your life with eternal priorities.
Let's explore powerful cross-references, ask hard questions, and let Scripture shine a light into the hidden corners of our motivations.
If you’re ready to stop chasing what doesn’t last and start building treasure in heaven, this study is for you.
📖 Matthew 6:21 (KJV)
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
This verse is one of the most piercing spiritual diagnostics in all of Scripture. It cuts to the very root of our priorities, our pursuits, and the hidden motives of the soul.
The "treasure" here is not merely money, it is whatever we value most. Your treasure might be wealth, popularity, comfort, approval, success, family, hobbies, control, even job titles.
⚠️ But Christ warns: Whatever holds your treasure, owns your heart.
🔥 Where is your heart really?
You can say you love God, but your actions scream louder than your confessions. What do you spend your time thinking about? What do you protect at all costs? What do you organize your life around?
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Not “where your heart is, there your treasure will follow,” but rather the reverse. Your treasure leads; your heart follows.
💡 Cross References
📖 Proverbs 4:23 (KJV)
"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."
The heart determines your life's direction. If your heart is with temporal treasures, your life will flow toward temporal emptiness. Guard it. What you love, you chase. What you chase, you eventually become.
📖 Matthew 6:19-20 (KJV)
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."
What you treasure is either eternal or perishable. You’re either investing in heaven or burning your time chasing dust. Earthly treasure fades, rots, breaks, and disappears. Eternal treasure endures.
📖 1 John 2:15-17 (KJV)
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
This is a line in the sand. If your treasure is the world, you are declaring that God is not your love.
⚠️ You can’t treasure both God and the world.
What you chase proves what you love.
📖 Colossians 3:1-2 (KJV)
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."
You can’t follow Christ while chasing what the world offers. Your affections, your focus, your treasures, they must be above. What you “set” your affection on is what you continually return to.
📖 Hebrews 11:24-26 (KJV)
"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward."
Moses turned his back on earthly treasure, royal privilege, and comfort. Why? He valued eternal reward above temporary pleasure. What about you?
🔍 What Are You Actually Spending Time On?
Look at your schedule. Your online browser history. Your habits. Your budget. Your dreams.
They reveal your treasure.
If someone had a transcript of your last week, with no commentary, just your actions and choices, would they say your treasure is in heaven? Or would they see you chasing things that rust, rot, and burn?
Is Your Heart in the Right Place?
Jesus isn’t just warning us. He’s inviting us:
"Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven."
He doesn’t say “Don’t lay up treasure”, He says choose the right treasure. He wants you to invest in what lasts forever.
🛑 Question: Is Your Heart in Heaven or Here?
“What would it take for you to give it all up if Jesus asked?”
That answer reveals your treasure.
✝️ Jesus is The True Treasure
Paul said in:
📖 Philippians 3:8 (KJV)
"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."
Paul saw Christ as the ultimate treasure.
👉 Everything else? Dung. Worthless.
Until Jesus becomes your treasure, your heart will wander. It will chase shadows. You’ll keep investing in sandcastles while ignoring the Kingdom.
Final Reflection
Jesus didn’t say, “Where your church attendance is…” or “Where your words are…”
He said, “Where your treasure is…”
So…
- What are you seeking?
- What are you sacrificing for?
- What are you daydreaming about?
- What drives your choices?
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Your heart doesn’t lie. It always follows your treasure.
📖 Psalm 139:23-24 KJV
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
🙏 Prayer: “Lord, Redirect My Heart”
Dear Heavenly Father,
You truly see me as I am. Not just my words or intentions, but the very movements of my heart. You know where my treasure is, even when I try to pretend otherwise. And You’ve shown me in Your Word that where my treasure is, there my heart will be also.
Dear God, I don’t want to chase after things that fade, rust, or rot. I don’t want to build my life around what is temporary while neglecting what is eternal.
Please search me, O God. Try my thoughts. Reveal to me what I’ve been treasuring more than You. If it’s comfort, take it. If it’s approval, strip it away.
I confess that I have often pursued lesser treasures. I have filled my time, my thoughts, and my energy with things that do not satisfy. Please forgive me, Lord. Realign my heart with heaven. Set my affection on things above, not on things of the earth.
Jesus, You are the only treasure that will last. Teach me to treasure You more than anything. Let my calendar, my bank account, my choices, and my desires prove that my heart belongs to You.
Please help me break every idol. Remove every distraction. Help me to seek first the Kingdom of God and lay up treasure in heaven, not for praise, not for gain, but because You are worthy.
Give me a heart that beats for eternity. A life that echoes forever. A soul that runs always after You and nothing else.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.