Maybe it's just me, but I find that there are a lot of things I am afraid of. I am afraid of professional failure. I am afraid of financial failure. I am afraid of romantic failure. I am afraid of the disapproval of others. I am afraid of being unpopular among my social peers.

I don't know why I'm so anxious about my life. It seems especially silly in light of the promises God makes to us. In today's Gospel reading Jesus tells his followers, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

Fear not. These are comforting words for people like me. If God desires to give us the kingdom, why should I worry about my job, my savings account, my relationships, and my social life? Why should I waste my time and energy and happiness trying to control a future that may never happen? Why shouldn't I trust a God who doesn't have to take care of me, but wants to?

"For where your treasure is," Jesus continues, "there will your heart be also." Jesus seems to suggest that if all our hopes for happiness are in external things, we will be disappointed. They cannot deliver what we expect of them. No person, credit card or career can fill our souls with happiness.

If you're like me, most of the things you worry about never come to pass. I've never starved. I've never been completely broke. I've never been without friends and companions. Certainly I have struggled financially, and to be close to my loved ones. I've faltered in each of these areas, perhaps because I was putting my heart in the wrong hands.

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It can be a bitter lesson to pursue something with all our might - whether it is a person, a career, a fortune or a destination - only to find ourselves disappointed when we attain it. The wrong treasures will not just misguide us, they might just break our hearts.

Jesus encourages us to set our sights on treasures that will last forever. "Sell your belongings and give alms," he says. "Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach and no moth destroy." It is hard to resist this vision - of an experience so rich and so satisfying and so secure that any earthly treasure seems like Monopoly money in comparison.

Fear can drive us to seek the wrong treasures. Fear tempts us to imagine worst-case scenarios for our lives, and then summons us to act to prevent the disasters that we conjure in our minds. We may avoid disasters, but we don't find a treasure that lasts forever, for there is always something else to be afraid of.

Fear not, says Jesus. These are challenging words for many of us. Jesus calls us to live by faith, not fear - faith that the presence of God in this world can give us all that we want and need. God offers us a treasure that gives forever and lasts forever. Money, jobs and relationships may not last forever. But our hearts do.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa.