Alive in Christ: Investment
Maria was still there. I had not visited her country in three years and yet when I came back…there she was, still where I remembered her. Every day Maria sits by her little cart full of candies and cookies and gum waiting for the school children to buy these treats. She comes at 7 am and leaves at 6 pm. A tarp stretched over her corner keeps the hot sun off. During the rainy season plastic is draped over the cart but Maria stays there…rain or shine, day in and day out. She has a purpose, a goal.
Maria has a daughter and she wants her daughter to have more opportunities than she did. She knows that her daughter must go to a good school. The money from the sale of treats enables Maria to pay the tuition for her daughter. Maria is investing her life for her child. She has my highest respect as she sits by her cartful of candies.
Each of us has an investment to make. Our life is our most valuable asset. How we choose to invest it is the most important decision we will ever make. It is far more important than how we will invest our income or our resources.
Some invest their income deliberately and carefully. Others run out before the next paycheck and have nothing of value to show for their investment.
Life is the same way. Every day we spend some of it. Every day we choose to deliberately and carefully invest our life or we simply just spend it, not knowing where it went.
Some feel they have little choice in how their life is invested. Some feel life has set them on a course and they just do what is in front of them, just getting through each day.
Whether you are in your dream job or just pushing through each day, your life is being spent and you do have some choices in the investment.
God knows exactly where you are. He knows your address and just where your day will be spent. Because of His great love for us, He gives us direction as to how to invest our lives. He knows what will bring the greatest return if we do things according to His advice, wherever our daily walk takes us.
God’s investment strategy for your life, as a believer, has three specific points.
- Take time for people
“Offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).
This simply means you say, “God, here are the members of my body today. Here are my hands. If You want to help someone today, use these hands. Here are my arms today, Lord. If You want to hug someone today, use these arms. Here is my mouth, Lord. If You want to encourage someone today, use my mouth. Use my feet to go wherever You want me to show Your love. I want to invest myself in Your work today. Your work is touching people…so use me today, Lord, to touch lives around me.”
- Pay attention to your heart
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Take time to think about what it is that consumes you. If you are investing your heart in the pursuit of money or things, your heart will feel empty and life will have a hollow ring to it. What is it you treasure most? That is where your heart will be. God made you and He knows that the things that will bring true fulfillment to your heart are the things that have eternal value.
In the busyness of your day, ask God to bring His focus to your activities. Ask Him to show you opportunities to invest your life by showing love and patience or gentleness and kindness. Offer mercy to those you would ordinarily have a harsh word for. As you treasure the things God values, you will find a return you did not expect. Joy will fill your heart!
- Choose how much you will invest
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work…
“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and enlarge the harvest of your righteousness” (2 Corinthians 8:6-10).
God asks us to give our life and all we have to Him. As we willingly and cheerfully deposit our lives into God’s account for Him to spend, He does two things. He gives us everything we need as we make this investment. We will not be shortchanged. And He actually increases what we give Him and adds interest. He will “enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”
Every day we make a choice as to how to spend our life. We invest it for God to work through us and touch the lives of those around us, or we just spend it on ourselves.
God made us to be filled with Him…just as a glove is made to be filled by a hand. In itself a glove is not much use until the hand is in it. So too, our lives are best invested when opened for God to fill and touch others through us.
God created you to be a vital part in His work of touching the world. Only when your life is invested in doing that will you find the true fulfillment you were created specifically for. There is someone in your circle He wants to touch through you. That is an investment opportunity you will not want to miss out on.
So go, my friend, and do today what is in front of you. Only do it with a prayer for God to help you take time for people, to mind your heart and to invest your life cheerfully into God’s account. He will enlarge your harvest and you will be surprised and pleased at the return on your investment.
Father God,
As I invest in this mentor program I ask that You would refresh my desire to touch the lives of those who You bring to me. Help me to find the time and to listen to Your voice as I respond to each one. Help my heart to be focused on the treasures of Your kingdom as so many things call for my attention. Keep my heart set on the priorities that come from You and not from the world around me.
Father, I place my life in Your hands afresh today. I deposit it for You to spend and I trust You to give me all that I need as I do this. Guide me as I walk through my day and touch others through me. Thank You that You have made me to be just who I am and You will increase what I place in Your hands, for Your kingdom. With thanksgiving I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.