The Learn Grow Invest community is amazing.
We are challenging the status quo’s mindset and the rhetoric about how to look at, spend and invest money. Thank you, Jermaine and Renate, for allowing us as a community to freely express our perspectives.
I often find that persons still invest with their mindset around short-term gains without considering the intangible research required to understand the feasibility of such.
If we use the principle of farming which is the biblical principle of the Kingdom of God, rewards from planting a seed take much time, money, sweat, tears, sacrifice, and often loss. Unforeseen circumstances can seemingly wipe away years of investment that you were so eagerly hoping for. If any of us know farmers, some crops can even take 24 months to bear, and some trees take a lifetime to grow.
What is Wealth to You?
So it causes me to ask people directly, what is wealth to you?
Most persons will provide the now textbook answer, but a critical thinker would respond that it depends on what someone defines as wealth.
We all have grown up in a society that has told us that the “all is vanity” dust we have is worshiped. Cars, houses, books, pens, flowers, trees, boats, yachts, watches, hotels, shows, land, islands, and the list goes on, even ourselves.
So my next question would be if the Bible says all is vanity, why do we enjoy being vain and sometimes even proudly profess to be so? Searching for short-term gains in what we should know takes long-term investment?
Now, here’s what I’m not saying. I am not saying you can’t see an opportunity and take it, and I’m not saying that fruit does not yield quickly at times. It very much can, miracles do happen, and some crops turn over faster like companies. However, the vast majority want the crop to yield with a palpable impatience that is not only unreasonable, but absurd.
I’m sorry if these questions cause you a little mental discomfort; this article is to cause us to question the core of the need for what we are to render to Caesar or, depending on your country, the head of state there. It also causes us to question the motives of our need to invest. What is your motive for investment? What is your heart posture?
Do you invest in displaying your gains proudly?
or
Do you invest in fulfilling God’s purpose?
That is the question!
If I’m honest, it’s a battle I fight as well.
I much prefer to live simply – it’s my natural MO. Jeans, a white T-shirt, and my hair in a bun any day. But the societal pressure encourages, and even forces me, to consider living extravagantly.
What the Bible Says
So, I have chosen to challenge persons to understand truly; What is wealth?
Let’s first reference the Word of God, which is the basis for our group.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.
Matthew 6:19-21 (New International Version)
God’s Word never comes back void. So, let’s stand on this principle store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. I liken treasures in heaven to be the fruit of the Spirit and the intangibles of life, which bring joy, not happiness (which is “short”-lived and dependent on circumstances).
22 But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 (New International Version)
The pandemic has shown us that the capitalist view of wealth is false. True wealth is contentment with what the Lord has given you and understanding that we must focus on the treasures of heaven. If you live that way, the tool of money will come, and we can be proper stewards of it after that.
I hope this is clear, and if it’s not, that’s fine as well; it will possibly cause you to challenge your thinking associated with what wealth truly is.
