Daily Verse
Monday, July 20, 2026
Eternal Perspective
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Monday's Reflection
Matthew 6:20 — But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
C.T. Studd had everything the world admires. He was one of the most famous cricketers in England in the 1880s — a star athlete who played for his country at the height of the sport. He was also heir to a substantial fortune. Wealth, fame, talent, comfort — by every worldly measure, he had won the game of life before he was thirty. And then he gave it all away. Around the age of twenty-five, when his inheritance came to him, Studd looked at the money in his hands and asked a simple question: what is this actually worth, in light of eternity? His answer was to give nearly the entire fortune away to God's work, keeping back only a small sum — which he then gave to his bride, who promptly gave it away too.
Studd had done the math that most people never do. He had realized that money, fame, and comfort are exactly the kind of treasure Jesus warned about — the kind that moth and rust corrupt, the kind thieves steal, the kind you cannot take with you when you die. So he traded it. He left cricket and England behind and spent the rest of his life as a missionary — first in China, then India, and finally, at around fifty years old and in failing health, founding a mission deep in the heart of Africa, where he died still serving. He had stored up his treasure where it could never be lost.
One short verse is often attributed to Studd, and it captures everything he lived by: "Only one life, 'twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last." That is eternal perspective in a single sentence. Studd was not a reckless man who threw his life away — he was a clear-eyed man who invested it wisely. He simply refused to pour his one short life into treasure that would rot, when he could lay it up in a place where it would last forever. The world thought he had lost everything. He knew he had finally found the only thing worth keeping.
Prayer: Lord, give us C.T. Studd's clear-eyed wisdom — to see that the treasures of this world will not last, and to invest our one short life in what is eternal. Help us to lay up treasure where moth and rust cannot reach it. Amen.