Thursday, May 28, 2015

What Future Investments Are You Making?

"Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.  You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'do not murder,' 'do not steal,' 'do not bear false witness,' 'honor your father and your mother.'"  And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth."  So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, "You still lack one thing.  Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich."
Luke 18:18-23 (NKJV)

There are many things that you can invest in.  You can invest your money in stocks, bonds, and precious metals.  You can invest your time in your work, hobbies, family, and friends.  You can invest your efforts and energy into sports, being productive on your job, and self-improvement.  Whatever you invest into will give you some return.  While all of these things we can invest in are good things not all of them will produce the same return, not all are equally profitable.

Some people think the story in Luke 18 shows that God wants everyone to be poor.  But the issue was not finances or possessions, the real point of the story is investment; Jesus wanted the young man to make the right kind of investments with his life and resources.  This young man had done some good things, he had made some good natural investments, but there were other things he needed to do, there were other eternal, spiritual investments that he needed to make.

Where do we invest our money, our time, our efforts and our energy?  All of the things we do will bring a return of some kind but not all of the things we do will make the right kind of future, eternal investments.  There are natural things that are good for us to invest in but we must make God's Kingdom, His Church, our priority for our investments.  By putting our money, time, efforts, and energy into godly things we are making good, future, eternal investments.

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