Living off God's Interest

My husband is a whiz at doing any kind of math in his head. His eyes light up like the keypads of a cell phone…I can just envision fiber optic lines just buzzing in his mind calculating the answer. He can calculate gross profit of anything in mere seconds. I, however, have developed brain paralysis! And it is all because of a love affair. Yes, it is true I have had an ongoing love affair with a machine ever since my senior year in high school. Prior to my love affair, I was pretty decent at calculating figures in my head. Now I cannot even do the simplest division without my lover! The object of my affair is…a calculator.

You are probably thinking, “What does a calculator have to do with how I perceive God’s view of me?” What is the purpose of a calculator (besides trying to increase our check book balance when clearly we should be subtracting!)? It helps find or place value or worth of something with the information given to it.

The past 24 months has been a roller coaster with investments in the stock market and real estate market. Values that were ballooned have burst and the hot air completely drained out of these markets. Investors are left holding worthless papers; retirees are left with empty accounts that they thought would provide for them in their later years; home owners’ struggling to make mortgage payments on homes that now are sometimes below the value of those mortgages. What changed? What calculator is being used that no longer adds or multiplies…but only divides and subtracts?

On a recent morning, I awoke to the thought, “banking and living off the investment.” I started thinking, “What am I placing value on, what am I “storing up” and will that to which I am spending time and energy hold its value in order to return a dividend?
Are we living off the interest of what someone else has invested in us? Are we placing our value, our worth in what others think and speak into our lives? And is what they are investing in us “bottoming out” or yielding a “high rate” of return? If we try to live off a “ballooned” interest others place on us, make no mistake we will eventually go bankrupt. However, if we are living off the interest of what God has said we are worth, the value God has placed on us then we will yield a high rate of return in investing in others.

Our value is not based on this world’s economic system, but on a heavenly banking system.
The value system the world uses to determine our worth is ever changing because it is based on the latest guru, religion, ideas or philosophies (Col 2:8-10)

These two systems are so far apart. The world system says, “I AM #1..it is all about me” and the heavenly system says, “He must increase, while I must decrease.”
Lies and deceit are behind the world’s value system, while truth and love are the standard for the heavenly value system.

In Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life” he says,
“God was there as an unseen witness, smiling at your birth. God did not need to create you, but he chose to create you for his own enjoyment. Bringing enjoyment to God, living for his pleasure, is the first purpose of your life. If you are that important to God, and he considers you valuable enough to keep with him for eternity, what greater significance could you have?
Eph 1:5, ‘Because of his love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children—this was his pleasure and purpose.’”

Our value and worth is not determined by how others view us but rather KNOWING how God views and values us:
· God chose us…BEFORE the creation of the world! (Jeremiah 1:5; Ephesians 1:4)
·God pursues me; He knows me; He protects me; He guides me; He holds onto me; He uniquely created me; He knows the number of hairs on my head and has established the number of days of my life (Psalm 139)
· God has a plan specifically designed just for me (Jeremiah 29:11)
· God determined to give His Son as a ransom to purchase my freedom from the chains of Satan’s death chambers before I was even born. (Romans 5:8)
· God takes great delight in me even to the point of singing over me! (Zephaniah 3:17)
· God doesn’t treat me according to my sins (1 John 1:9; Psalm 103:10)
· God is preparing a home for me so I will be with Him…FOREVER! (John 14:1-4)
· God gives me peace in the midst of my troubles (John 16:33)
· God has engraved me in the palm of His hand…He will NEVER forget me! (Isaiah 49:16)
· God has given me everything I need to live (Philippians 4:19; 2 Peter 1:3-11)
Nothing..ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will turn God’s love and affections away from us...NOTHING!! He has placed such high value in us that He gave His very best for us, His Son Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:31-39).
When we understand and accept the value God has placed in us, then we truly will be able to “re-invest” that value in others.