Investment Advice

I lack financial acumen to really understand the best ways to pick a stock. Even more, I am a terrible investor because I follow the market too closely! Every downturn makes me jittery. I am advised that if I want to profit most from an investment in stocks, I should choose a diverse portfolio as wisely as possible, then be willing to ride the up’s and down’s over the long term. Even a legend like Warren Buffett does not show a profit each and every year.
Our life in Christ must be viewed as a long-term investment! OK, that’s sound quite selfish, doesn’t it? Keep reading. In the closing chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses recaps the Law for Israel. Most basically, he says – “If you live obediently, God will bless you. If you ignore Him, you’ll be cursed.” "If you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, and heartily obey all his commandments that I command you today, God, your God, will place you on high, high above all the nations of the world." (Deuteronomy 28:1, The Message) "All the peoples on Earth will see you living under the Name of God and hold you in respectful awe." (Deuteronomy 28:10, The Message) Those promises apply to the Church, just as they did to the people of Israel. When we love and revere the Lord God, when we accept His merciful grace and goodness and invite the Holy Spirit to lead us we will find the ‘abundant life’ that Jesus said He came to provide for those who follow Him.

Some of you are reading that and immediately you object- “But, I know Christians who are suffering. I know people who really love the Lord who are going through very tough times.” And, so do I! So, is God’s promise true or not? It is but the blessings we enjoy are like the profit of investing in stock – they appear over the long term! It’s foolish to walk with the Lord one week and then say, “Where’s the blessings?” The godly are part of a world where evil people do things that cause suffering for the godly and ungodly alike. Godly people suffer along with the rest of the world in times of war, when greed causes economic collapse, and when family members forsake the Lord and drag their sin home.

But, Jesus points out that “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." (Matthew 7:23-25, NIV) Those who stay faithfully close to the Lord through it all are blessed with a security that reaches into eternity.

There’s another caution that we must take note of about living a blessed life. If we focus on the blessings and not on the love of the Lord, we will turn into religious fanatics congratulating ourselves when life is good and beating ourselves when things are bad! We will become self-focused, mistakenly thinking that it is our goodness that makes God bless us. It is such a subtle deception; and the Devil delights in letting us wander into that place. When we think, “it’s all about me” we make the wonderful life of those who are graciously godly into an ugly parody, increasingly absorbed with trivial matters. Over time we create a long list of rules that hides the beauty of the grace of God from us and in us!

\Disciple, love Jesus! Invest yourself in Him, pursue Him as your Divine Lover. Don’t pay too much attention to the temporary up’s and down’s of life. Only God knows why the trials and joys of each day are allowed to come our way. Invest in Him for the long-term.

Here’s a word from the Word. May it be both a caution and encouragement for you today.
"Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!— harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith." (Galatians 6:7-10, The Message)