What do you value most in life? Where have you placed your deepest desires and expectations? Are they focused on the earthly or the eternal? Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). What we continually think of is an indication of what we value most.

People spend most of their lives working toward having earthly things that will eventually perish—an education, an occupation, a comfortable bank account, security, a beautiful home, clothes, earthly pleasures and the cares of this life.

All of these demand our time, affection, energy and money. Yet in the end, none of these can be taken into eternity, none of these are the “better and enduring substance” mentioned by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 10:34.

What are the “true riches” in Luke 16:11? What treasures should we lay up for ourselves in heaven mentioned in Matthew 6:20? How should we use our time and substance? What investments will return the greatest eternal dividends? What can we take with us when we leave this earthly life and go into the next one? We want to invest those things which will last forever. Christ implied that worldly riches, money, possessions are not the lasting riches. These are earthly. The better and enduring riches are eternal.

The riches we should seek should be the following:

1. A good name. “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1). What a treasure it is when a man or woman has earned God’s approval and favor. Even after death, God causes the memory of the just to be blessed. A good name is a treasure that can be left on earth and taken into eternity as well.

2. Gold refined in fire. “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich” (Revelation 3:18). Gold is a symbol of divine nature. “Gold refined in fire” refers to a divine nature produced in us while in the furnace of affliction (Revelation 2:9). It means to be like God and to have His attributes. This kind of gold is much more costly than any natural gold on earth, for it speaks of the refining of a man’s character. In earthly terms, the church of Laodicea was very wealthy. They boasted, “We are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.” But God’s evaluation of them was quite different. He said, “You are poor, blind and naked.” Yet God desired them to be rich with eternal riches, saying, “Buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich.”

3. Treasures in heaven. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20). Likewise, wealthy believers are urged by Paul not to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but rather to be rich in good works that they may lay up for themselves the riches that endure forever (1 Timothy 6:17-19). One teenage girl had a dream of her father’s home. It was beautiful and complete. Then she saw a few pieces of building material at a place nearby and she inquired, “What are these?” Much to her embarrassment, she was told, “This is your home. This is all you have given us to work with.” The building material that goes into our eternal home is being set up right now by our works on earth. Since that time, she too has been building in the invisible. Our works follow us into eternity. Eternal life, of course, is a free gift from God and cannot be earned. Rewards however, will be according to our deeds. Matthew 5:19 proves that everyone’s reward will not be identical.

4. Rich in faith. “Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith?” (James 2:5). Faith is another of God’s sacred treasures. Not all men have faith (2 Thessalonians 3:2). Even among the redeemed, every man is given a measure of faith (Romans 12:3). This faith, however, must continue to grow. Anyone who possesses faith is very wealthy. Faith calms all of our fears. Faith brings provision and healing. It is faith that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4). Faith opens our understanding (Hebrews 11:3). Without faith, the words of God are merely “cunningly devised fables.” Truly, a man devoid of faith is a man of indescribable poverty.

Acts 3:6 says, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” What education and diplomas could never accomplish, and what all the money in the world could never do, Peter had the authority to accomplish through faith. In just one instant, a man who had never walked was “walking, leaping and praising God.” Peter and John had no medical degree from a university, but they had the priceless power of God upon them because of a relationship of faith. These men possessed the true riches.