Our Best Investments........

Much is being said, taught and printed today regarding wise investments and unwise ones. All of us have heard of the scandals that are rocking the financial spectrum of our world. It seems as though daily we hear of new gimmicks and schemes that have been perpetrated on the innocent to scam them out of their finances. Many are learning hard lessons during this worldwide downturn.

I would like to share a treasure that we find in the book of Proverbs. It is a treasure that gives us stability in the time of crisis, if we choose to follow the counsel.....

Proverbs 23:5..... Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For (riches) certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle (toward) heaven.

Do you find it strange that so much of what has been preached from the "pulpits" of modern finance has come to naught as of late. For decades we have been told that your home is the safest investment. Others have proclaimed that the stock market is the safest place for our investment. Education has been billed as the rock in the river of life, that if you will simply get an education, it will make you indispensable. I could go on but I think you can see just a few of the Investment Guarantee's" that have been sold!!!

Now look at our current situation in the world. Home values have plummeted in recent months. Far too many people have borrowed to the max against their homes and are finding this strategy.... shall we say, stress filled and dangerous. Stocks have plummeted and retirement funds have been cut in half! Many are wondering where did it go???? Education, while important, has proven itself to NOT be a guarantee against job loss or layoff.

While these things are not bad.... of themselves, I am simply asking you to compare the world's strategy with God's word. In the first part of our scripture lesson today, what do you see? I see God questioning the strategy. HE questions our strategies. HE questions why we have chosen strategies that ultimately have NOTHING as their end. Simply meaning their end, WILL end..... they are NOT eternal in nature.

This passage unveils that which most today seek after..... stuff that doesn't last. We spend the vast majority of life preparing for, purchasing and paying for a home. A good thing of itself.... but we will leave it behind. We save for retirement so we can live "comfortably" only to die (which we are all going to do!) and leave it behind. As one senior in our church recently told me after celebrating their reaching the retirement plateau...... "it is not all I thought it would be." Couldn't that be said by many people and about many things of man's life? The reason is......? If it does not have at its center...... Our Great God, it will be at its best EMPTY! Solomon said it best when he said .... Utterly Meaningless! Everything is Meaningless. Eccl. 1:2 (NIV)

The self life always ends this way....empty. Because we are bent towards self, selfishness is often the enemy of God's great plan for us! When the law of sowing and reaping takes effect, (and it always will) we see the fullness of Proverbs 23:5. Stuff just disappears. Plans, purposes that are contrary to HIS plan will ultimately fail. Thus the end result is what we are seeing in our society today. Emptiness, sadness, confusion and all types of opinions and uncertainty of what to do???

I will end this rambling today with this simple yet profound truth.....

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ....Matt. 6:33

Seek Him and Him alone.
That is a Wise Investment!
Blessings
Bruce