Wise Investing

“…The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into his harvest” – Jesus

Why are there few laborers? Could it be because each of us is too distracted by mowing the pasture, building walls, making money and spending money? The rich young ruler was told that he should sell everything, give the money to the poor and follow Jesus. If he had, he might have been one of Jesus’ closest disciples. He might have had a life that counted for something. As it is, he only became the sad example of the power and fraud of worldly priorities.

The problem with our money and things is that they are “ours”. We talk about giving them to the Lord and being stewards. But, how do we feel when we suffer loss because of an “act of God”. Can we have Job’s attitude and sincerely say, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away”? Sadly, many of us (including me) have missed out on wonderful treasure because of wrong priorities in our view of “our” time and money and how we invest them.

What is the purpose of life? To get educated, get a good job, get married, have children, make lots of money, help your children learn to make lots of money, retire, and die? Many of us and many of our neighbors are caught in this cycle while making minimum investments of eternal value.

For example, many of us could afford to sponsor a fulltime missionary all by ourselves. A native missionary in Asia can be fully supported with a fraction of our income. Many of these missionaries are making hundreds of converts to Christ and starting dozens of churches while they personally live in poverty. They are piling up eternal riches with the tiny bit they have. In contrast, what are we doing with our piles of worldly riches? Maybe we should consider how to invest in their ministry. In addition, many of us could invest at least a little more of our time in ministry in our church and neighborhood. A little wise investing could yield a huge treasure in eternity.

Project:
Ask God for His priorities to become your priorities.

"If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." -- Jesus
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