Buried treasures

Invest what you have, because after a while you will get a return. (Ecclesiastes 11:1)

I have frequently heard people say they have nothing to give - nothing to bring into a circumstance that THEY feel will be of any value. Instead of giving what they have and allowing God to INCREASE the value of what they bring, they just stand idly by. If we want to ever see an increase of what we have been given, we must invest it. As a young adult, raising wee kiddos, my financial circumstances were not the best. I had a hard time making ends meet from time to time, but never went without. I trusted God to bring the increase, but I invested what I could into the process. What I had was my two hands, a strong back, and a will to work. That is what I could invest. It might have meant long hours of picking weeds for $3/hour at times and rising way before dawn to deliver papers in the dark of night, but we never went without.

There are times we feel what we have won't really matter - it isn't 'significant' or 'earth-shattering'. If you have ever tried to raise a wall alone, you know the value of 'spare hands'. If you have ever tried to move 15 tons of gravel into your yard by nightfall, you know the value of a few extra wheelbarrows and a couple of strong neighbors. What we 'have' may not seem like much, but when employed as God gave us the ability to employ those talents and treasures, there will be a profound multiplication of what we have been given. It is easy to sit on the sidelines and say we 'can't', but it is likely we are saying we 'won't' instead. Learn to use what God created within you and you might just become the biggest blessing to another.

Invest wisely - this is a principle we must each learn. Do you remember the story in scripture of several men entrusted with a sum of money by their master? One invested the five bags of gold and yielded an additional five bags, while another invested the two bags he had been given and yielded double for his master. The one who had been entrusted with one bag of gold merely hid it, too scared to invest what he had been given. All he had to offer upon his master's return was one bag of gold. The master was disappointed because he had entrusted the servant with this gift, and it was not used. Whether we are entrusted with much or little, we are to use what we have been given. We know not the 'yield' that will be realized, but if we just 'bury' what we have been given, we will never realize any greater yield. Just sayin!