Investments

One of today's news items is something like "Stock Markets Soar on Recovery Hopes." People invest money in those markets hoping to make more money. Their hopes rise and fall along with the fortunes of the companies or funds they invest in. Some have made good money, while others have lost it all. Some have spent their whole lives trying to make more and more money, to the point of obsession.

The Bible has several messages about money. The first is to invest, first and most intensively, with God; to give to him in response to his generous gifts to you. The second is to treat money as something that is not given to you, but invested with you by God; so that you are the "steward" or the fund manager, and it's your job to use it wisely. The third is to be generous with it; not to hoard it for yourself, but to give to others as you can, and as you find them in need. All of these are based on one other principle: that God loves us and will take care of us, if only we will let him.

Jesus covered several of these principles in "The Sermon on the Mount" as some call his teachings in Matthew 5-7 (and some parallels in Luke). Especially in chapter 6, he brings out generosity (verses 1-4) by teaching that we shouldn't have our gifts limited to what will make us look good; dependence on God (verse 11) by reminding us to ask him for our daily needs; focusing on God, not our own financial security (verses 19-21), which would include giving generous offerings instead of just building up a bank account; and again, dependence on God (verses 24-31) by showing us how much God cares for us and looks after our welfare.

None of those teachings includes our being careless with what God has given us, or goofing off and making others carry us. So we shouldn't mistake his teachings about relying on God in faith with encouraging laziness or slacking.

The whole investment thing is a mystery to me. But I do know a couple of things about money. One is that God has taken care of me, umpteen times, using resources I didn't know existed. The other is that no matter how careful I am to save up money, at the end of my life I won't take any of it with me. I hope that the legacy I leave behind will be one of loving generosity to others, and a wise management of the resources God has given me. And complete reliance on God for all the things I can't control anyway -- because he is the one who does control it.

How about you?