The Perfect InvestmentPlanning a financial covenant
What would be the perfect investment? Some people think CD's while others favor stocks, bonds, real estate, gold coins, or pork bellies. The trouble with all of these investments is that there is risk. Banks can fail, companies can go bankrupt, tangible assets can deteriorate, be stolen or destroyed in a natural disaster like an earthquake or tornado.
 An investment by definition should provide a reasonable return but at the same time safeguard the capital invested. So how do we accomplish that? Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21 "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" (NIV).
The trouble with storing our treasures or investments in this world is that no matter how well our investments do, eventually we lose it all! As we asserted in a prior article, You can't take it with you (April/May 2004 Legacy), we are stewards not owners. No matter how much you have, no matter how well your investments do, you can lose it all in an instant like the rich man who Jesus described in Luke 12:15-21.
This rich man had no room to store his harvest so he tore down his barns and built bigger ones so he could accumulate more and take life easy. But God said to him "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God" (v. 2021 NIV).
Where do you invest? From the foregoing we can see that God does tell us the perfect investment. It is to store up treasures in Heaven. While we can't take it with us we can send it along ahead! So how do we store up treasures in heaven? They key is the statement that where our treasure is our heart will be also. As part of our stewardship responsibilities, God expects us to manage the assets He has entrusted to us, but if we consider them ours then we will lose them.
As in many other areas of our spiritual life, we have to be obedient to God. The Bible is very clear that God expects us to give tithes and offerings to Him. In Malachi 3:8-12 God says the failure to give such tithes and offerings constitutes robbery against God. However, when we give our tithes and offerings, we will be greatly blessed. When we recognize in our hearts that everything belongs to God, we can easily invest in what God wants not what we want to make us comfortable. We invest in Heaven not by accumulating assets but by generally investing in people.
Learning a lesson in giving - It took me (David) a long time to learn this lesson. Linda was always much more giving than I was, if the truth be told I was a little stingy. It was during a time some years ago that we were having some real financial pressures in large part due to mistakes I had made, that God told us at an annual convention of 2=1 to give a very substantial gift to the ministry.
We did not have the money He told us to give but we were in agreement that that is what God was telling us to do. So we made a pledge of that amount and put it in God's hands as to how we would meet it. Before the year was out we had fulfilled the pledge and it was effortless. Somehow the money came in a little here and a little there and we were faithful to send it to the ministry. Not only was the pledge fulfilled but our other finances turned around too.
Looking back it is clear that we were obedient to what God told us to do and we planted our financial seed in good ground that produced a bounteous crop. In other words, we gave our way out of financial bondage by recognizing that we were stewards not owners of what we had and by giving to a ministry that invested in people.
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