The New Year marks the perfect time to think about investing in the future. As the calendar flips back to January 1st, we can reflect on the past and consider our steps for the year to come.
As Christians we need to be interested in both short-term and long-term investments. Jesus often taught about the importance of using money wisely. In Luke 14:28 he taught his disciples, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” This is common sense wisdom that is applied to financial investment. The fool builds before considering the cost. The wise man carefully considers what he has and builds accordingly.
Most of Jesus’ financial teaching was focused on investing in the future. He said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt. 6:19-21) The last line is the most important. We each show where our interests lie by where we spend our money.
This is a great principle to consider as we look to the new year. Where are you going to spend the money God has given you stewardship over? How are you going to use the skills you have been given to bring back a plentiful return on your investment? Are you going to use the time he grants you this year for gain that is focused on this lifetime, or are you going to invest it in eternity?
The Parable of the Sower is sobering because only one of the four types of soil yields a fruitful harvest. The first three types of soil are either too hard, too shallow, or too harsh to support the seed taking root and producing a healthy return. It is only the last soil, the good soil that bears fruit and yields a harvest “in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” (Mt. 13:23)
The meaning of the parable is that the first three soils are those who hear God’s word and do not obey it. The last soil is the good soil that “hears the word and understands it.” In John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
The Holy Spirit indwells every believer and makes it possible for him to yield a bountiful harvest. The Holy Spirit guides the believer through God’s word. This is the secret to investing in the short term and the long term. By obeying God’s word you will be able to live focused on others. You will be able to consider how God wants you to invest your time and money, and it will bring fruitful return today, tomorrow, and for eternity. Jesus said, “ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
