Author: A Little Faith Lift…Finding Joy Beyond Rejection
www.alittlefaithlift.com
AWSA (Advanced Writers & Speakers Assoc.)
“Make me worthy of your investment, Lord.”
A friend starts every day with these words.
Read them again.
What a way to rise and shine!
Did you ever think of your life as an investment? God’s investment? To Him, you are an asset. He paid the maximum for you with the death of His son, and you have been blessed with every great thing from above to continue bringing glory to Him.
You have been given talents that make you more valuable than you could ever imagine. In 2 Corinthians 4:7, Paul echoed this fact: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”
When was the last time you thanked your Heavenly Father for placing a treasure inside you? That “treasure” is the Holy Spirit, the comforter Jesus promised to indwell us once he left this earth, following his resurrection. I can’t fathom the idea that I am a place—as unreliable and fickle as I am–where God hides His greatest treasure, can you?
On the outside, we all are wearing out. Some days, more than others. We are broken, fragile and weak, yet God chose to place inside us the very authority that created this universe and raised His son from the dead. Wow! In 2 Corinthians 4:7, we read, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.” In other words, our great power is from God, not from ourselves, and what truly matters is what is inside us, not outside.
Reading further, verses 8-10 lay out the hope we have hidden inside of us. “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed but not driven to despair. We are hunted down but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.”
Let me remember that, Lord, so that I am an investment worthy of you.
A friend shared with me some powerful words from her pastor, words that reflect what happens when we fail to see ourselves as an investment. “One day can rob us of our To-days. One day…when I meet someone and get married; when I get the promotion I deserve; when my prodigal daughter straightens up her act; when I no longer have to care for my invalid father…” The excuse that things will get better when (fill in the blank) prevents us from being the investment God intends us to be.
If you have ever owned something you treasured, chances are you placed it in a safe, secure place. Some of my friends tell stories of deceased relatives leaving large stashes of cash in old socks, rag bins and pillows to keep them safe. After my mother died, I opened her cedar chest; taped to the inside was a note: “There is no money in here.” It was a much-needed, humorous moment. Then again, to Mom, earthly things did not matter.
Continuing in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 we read, “Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
Should we choose to be an investment worthy of God, our “forever” will be a treasure we can’t afford to miss.