Long-Term
Investments
Someone told me the other day that real estate is a long-term investment. It’s not a five year project; it’s not even a ten year project, he said. Buying a house or a piece of property is a long-term investment because there are going to ups and downs over the years and peaks and valleys in the market, but if you’re in it for the long-term, it’ll pay off in the end... Now, there is probably some truth to that. Just like any other investment, a long-term approach is more likely to end favorably.
But that’s
not guaranteed, is it? Even long-term
investments do not always end well because we can’t predict what will happen in
the future, we can’t control the thousands of different factors that come into
play, and we can’t always adjust to the surprises we weren’t anticipating. A person might hope that a long-term investment pays off, but no one really knows
for sure.
There is
a long-term investment, however, that always pays off in the end - but it’s a spiritual investment: faith in Jesus as
your Savior. That investment will always
turn out well because it is guaranteed by the Lord himself. And the Lord can predict the future! He can control thousands of different factors
all at once! He can adjust to surprises
because he anticipates all of them! But remember:
it is a long-term investment! It’s not a five year project; it’s not even a
ten year project. And so when you are
right in the middle of the ups and downs of this life and when you experience the
peaks and the valleys and when you are going through times when things don’t
look so good and you want to sell and get out as fast as you can, remember that
faith is a long-term investment. It’s a life-long investment. Trust that no matter what you have to go
through in this life and no matter how bleak the future may look at times, the
Lord will make sure that in the end this long-term investment will pay eternal
dividends.
Daniel’s Short-Term
Difficulties
A good example of how faith is a long-term investment would be the life of the prophet Daniel. He believed in the coming Savior and he knew he was going to go to heaven, but he had to live through some tough times along the way! At a very early age Daniel was ripped away from the Promised Land, the place where he was born, because the Babylonians came in, destroyed Jerusalem, burned down the temple, and deported Daniel and many of his countrymen back to Babylon. Daniel then had to serve under a very ruthless and ungodly king who almost ended up murdering Daniel without reason. Daniel was then called on to confront this king with the announcement that the king would be dethroned if he did not repent of his sins. Daniel soon became hated by many of the Babylonians leaders and so they plotted his death. Daniel was the one who was thrown into the lions’ den to be eaten alive. Later on Daniel was called on to confront another king with a declaration from God that the king would soon die for his sins and his kingdom would be taken away. And by the time everything settled down in his life and Daniel could live peacefully for the first time, he was too old to go back to the land of Israel with his fellow countrymen. And he ended up dying thousands of miles away from his home in a country in which he did not belong. Daniel’s life wasn’t exactly pleasant. It was filled with hardships and difficulties, ups and downs, peaks and valleys. But Daniel held on. He trusted that this investment would pay off. He trusted in this promise that came from his Lord:
“There will be a time of
distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But
at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will
be delivered. Multitudes
who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others
to shame and everlasting contempt.
Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of
the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever
and ever.” What a
promise! What a guarantee! Daniel’s eternity was secure! There was no doubt that he was going to end
up in heaven! And everyone else whose
name is written in the Book - those who believe in Jesus - will one day shine
like stars right there with him. Faith is a long-term investment. And in the end it will always pay off.
Our Short-Term
Difficulties
I played football throughout high school and college. And by the time guys got to college, they knew what to expect if they went out for the football team. But in high school, there were always a group of freshmen that had never played football before and stepped onto a football field for the very first time for the first practice of the year. Now the football team had practices for a week or two before school even started. And since there weren’t any classes yet, there were 2 or 3 practices a day in the middle of August in the middle of Nebraska. And so there was a lot of heat and a lot of humidity and a lot of running - a lot of running. And so inevitably, there would be a handful of freshmen each year that wouldn’t make it. They would quit. They would fake injuries or give excuses or just never come back. In short, the running and the heat and the effort and the physical work wasn’t worth it to them. They would have rather been sitting on the couch in their flip-flops than be out in the hot sun running 40 yard dashes in full football gear. But the veterans knew what it was all building up to. We knew that if we could just make it through these first few weeks of intense and physically nauseating practices, we would get to what it was all about: the Friday night games, under the lights, a big crowd on hand, and the thrill of victory. But for those few freshmen each year that didn’t even make it through the first couple days of practice, the excitement and the contest and victory of Friday night wasn’t theirs. All they could do was watch behind the ropes on the sidelines.
It’s
tempting to just call it quits sometimes, isn’t it? It’s tempting to throw in the towel and
actually enjoy yourself in this life because sometimes it just doesn’t seem to
be worth trusting in a God who doesn’t seem to be there for you, who doesn’t
seem to be helping, who doesn’t seem to be following through! You pray and you pray and you pray and you
try and you try and you try and you wait and you wait and you wait, but life
doesn’t seem to be getting any better. And
you wonder why you are even bothering.
You wonder why you are putting up with so much unpleasantness in your
life when you thought things were going to be a little easier. “I want answers now, Lord! I want solutions now, Lord! I want good things now, Lord! What are you waiting for!”
But that
wasn’t the deal. That’s not what your
Lord promised you, was it? He did not
promise a good life and a pain-free existence.
He did not promise that you would not have any problems and that all of
your troubles would be instantly taken away.
And so how dare we demand that of him!
As if he owes us. As if he is
obligated to do what we want him to do when we want him to do it. “Oh, but he promised to help me!” we
cry. “He promised to support me and be
with me!” Who says he’s not helping you
or supporting you or with you? “But he’s
not helping me in the way I want him to, the way I’m asking him to, the way I
need him to!” So we have the right to
get angry and frustrated with the Lord when he is not helping us in the way we think is best? And we feel like quitting in the middle of
things? And we feel like cutting our
losses and figuring out a different direction?
What a wicked disposition we have!
To think that we know better than the Lord, to think that his plans are
not as good as ours, to think that this long-term investment in him is not
panning out because he is obviously not holding up his end of the bargain.
Jesus’ Long-Term Investment
Why
should the Lord even stick around? Why
should the Lord continue to put up with us if we always complain and gripe and
demand and even begin to doubt his sincerity?
Could any of you blame him if he just walked away? Could you fault him if he finally threw up
his hands, shook his head, and let us deal with life on our own? He would have every right to do that. But he’s not going to. Your Lord will never walk away from you no
matter how unpleasant you are at times because he’s invested way too much into
you to cut his losses now.
Think
about everything that your God has invested in you over the past few thousand
years: He’s invested a lot of time in you, hasn’t he? And not just during your life; ever since sin
was in this world he promised to send a Savior for you. Which means that he had to continue to work
throughout history and steer things in the right direction so that your Savior
could come at exactly the right time.
And he’s invested a lot of effort in you too. While Jesus was on this earth the amount of effort
it must have taken him to keep every one of his Father’s commands on your
behalf must have been completely exhausting.
What about the pain he’s invested for your forgiveness? That’s a lot of pain! What about the blood for your salvation? That’s a lot of blood! What about his life? He decided that you were actually worth dying
for! God was willing to invest his life on
this earth for you so that you one day could have a life in heaven. What about the energy your Lord invests in
you right now? He’s always watching you,
always guarding you with his power, always guiding you with his Word; he’s
always planning ahead for you, he’s always picking up your messes behind you,
he’s always working everything out for you that is happening right now. God has invested his reputation in you
because he has publically called you his child.
He’s even invested the rest of his eternity in you because he promises
that you will be with him in his home forever!
Your Lord has invested everything in you! Everything! He’s all in!
He’s not backing out! He’s not
folding his cards. He’s not cutting his
losses because he has no losses to cut.
You are his; he has paid dearly for that privilege of calling you his
own; he is not going to give you up. He’s
not going to give up on you.
Our Long-Term Dividend
Which
bodes well for us even in this life, doesn’t it? If our Lord is that committed to us and that
invested in us to promise us the glories of eternity, then he’s certainly going
to take of us now while we are living here in this world. He doesn’t want us to fall away from the
faith we have in him. He doesn’t want us
to give up on the investment that we have in our Savior. And he doesn’t want us to become too
discouraged when that investment doesn’t seem to be working out. Because we will experience days and weeks and
maybe even entire decades of trouble and difficulty and dark, dark times. After all, that’s what the Lord promised: “There will be a time of
distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.” But that doesn’t mean he
leaves you at those times. That doesn’t
mean his investment in you is wavering. It
simply means that at those times he is pulling us closer to his promises: his
promises of love, his promises of strength, his promises of eternity. Because he doesn’t just promise distress, he
also promises deliverance: “Everyone
whose name is found written in the Book will be delivered.” You will be delivered. You
will be delivered from all of this! Hang on!
Don’t give up on that investment now!
It’s too precious to throw away.
It’s too certain to give up. This
long-term investment in your Savior will pay off. It will.
You will receive eternal dividends that will make everything worth
it. Just as the apostle Paul once said, “I consider that our present sufferings are
not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). You cannot avoid suffering in this life. They will come. But those suffering aren’t even worth
comparing to what awaits. Hang on. Hang on. The Lord will see you through. The Lord will get you home. And when he does, you’ll never want anything
else ever again.
Amen.
“The
Lord will rescue us from every evil attack and bring us safely into his
heavenly kingdom. To him be glory
forever and ever. Amen.” - 2 Tim. 4:18
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