It was our second year of marriage and my wife and I were meeting with a financial advisor. We were both beginning our professional careers and we had no children. We recently purchased our first home together and this depleted most of our savings. As the advisor reviewed our assets, he stated, “You are house rich. You need to build your cash and savings, investing in an IRA or 401K, if your company provides one.”
All of our eggs were in one financial basket. We needed to diversify our investment portfolio. We all agreed and nearly twenty five years later, my wife and I are both approaching our retirement and we have followed a disciplined pathway, methodically saving and investing, diversifying our assets. It was sound advice then and thousands of years ago.
Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
Ecclesiastes 11:2 (NIV)
The Bible is replete with wisdom regarding our finances. Why? Everything we own belongs to God; we are merely stewards of our possessions when we are alive on this earth. Money is no different than other possessions. It is the love of money, not money itself, that is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). When we obsess over our wealth and possessions and trust in the size of our bank account and investments, there is no room for trusting and believing in God. We begin to think we have achieved this success on our own, not by God’s grace. We think that we are house rich but we are spiritually poor.
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
Luke 16:10-11 (NIV)
Diversification.
How we manage the resources God gives us has eternal significance in Heaven. The possessions we have in this life are miniscule compared to the true riches in Heaven that God will give to all who through confess and repent of their sins and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Our attention and energy needs to be focused upon what God desires for His kingdom, rather than what we desire for immediate comforts.
Amen!
Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.
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