God's Portfolio

Imagine someone entrusted you with their stock portfolio.  Their entire future rests in your hands.  Do you sell their stocks, pay all the capital gains, take losses in order to get out, and bury the rest so that no one will know where it is and it will be safe?  We’ll come back to this in a minute.

Now what about our “stuff”? Why do we spend our lives piling up “stuff” and then allow this “stuff” to control our lives?  Abram in Genesis 15 says to God, “God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?”  Abram is so short-sighted that he cannot imagine that God has a greater plan for him.  He is mad at God, in his short-sightedness, for not giving him someone that he sees fit to inherit his “stuff”.

God then takes Abram outside and says to him, “Look at the sky.  Count the stars. Can you do it?...”  

In my words, “Abram, shut-up!  Get out of your little box - your limited thinking.  Stop worrying about your “stuff” - your one son that can take care of your “stuff” for just one second.  Now look up.  How many stars are there?  Oh there are too many to count?    (I would’ve thrown something in here about how “I put those stars there,and I put you in this place, and I’ll take you out of it faster than...” but God didn’t say that so I digress...)  Then be quiet and listen for a minute, I’ve got something to say...”

God then continues, “Count your descendants!  You’re going to have a big family, Abram!”  God has plans that Abram could never imagine.  He could not understand that God wanted to not only give him one son, but so many children he could never count. Abram was too worried about what would happen to his stuff.

So back to that stock portfolio.  God has entrusted you with his portfolio.  With his entire Kingdom?  Are you willing to step out of your little box and limited thinking?  Are you willing to stop operating out of fear?  To realize that God’s portfolio isn’t just money or “stuff”?  Are you willing to realize that the God of everything, the one who created everything, the one who is Lord over all and “put those stars there” is trusting YOU with his most precious treasure.  Are you going to doubt God’s faith in you to take care of His treasure, and bury it in the ground?

Matthew 25:28-30 (MSG) says, “Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most.  And get rid of this ‘play-it-safe’ who won’t go out on a limb.  Throw him out into utter darkness”

God wants us to stop living for our “stuff” and in our worldly means.  To get rid of the part of ourselves that wants to ‘play-it-safe’.  Forget about your “stuff” and what’s going to happen to it after you’re gone, and step outside and look at the countless stars in an infinite sky.  The God who put those stars there loves you, and has trusted you with a treasure so precious He came here to die for it.  Now, what are you going to do with it?