How Are Your Investments? Fire Proofing Your Money
In the greatest message ever preached, Jesus addressed the believer's proper relationship to money and possessions:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where 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. "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Matthew 6:19-24)
Jesus always had two kingdoms in mind. He spoke here of the two treasuries, the two perspectives, and two masters of those two kingdoms.
Each couplet presents two options and demands one choice. There's a default choice if no choice is made. Unless the right choice deliberately made and tenaciously clung to, the wrong choice will naturally be implemented. In that case, as if on automatic pilot, people will spend their lives investing in the wrong treasury, adopting the wrong perspective, and serving the wrong master.
Two Treasures
What is our treasure? A.W. Tozer suggested we may discover the answer by responding to four basic questions:
- What do we value most?
- What would we hate most to lose?
- What do our thoughts turn to most frequently when we are free to think what we will?
- What affords us the greatest pleasure?
Based on our answer to these four questions, what's our treasure?
Christ's primary argument against amassing material wealth was not that it was morally wrong, but that it was simply a poor investment. Material things just will not stand the test of time. Even if they escape the moths and rust and thieves, they cannot escape that coming fire of God that will consume the material world. Jesus is not saying it is wrong to invest, He is saying "Don't make a stupid investment, make a smart one." John Wesley echoed these thoughts when he said, "I value all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity."
God does not object to an investment mentality. According to the passage in Matthew 6, God has an investment mentality and Christ agrees wholeheartedly that wealth is worth seeking. However we also need to understand that the wealth worth seeking is one of eternal investment.
Let's pray and work together to help each other make sure we are making the proper investments for the proper reasons.
6:50:38 AM 
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