• Investing Our Lives Wisely

    By: Kristen L. McNulty

    Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.

    While much of my life has been devoted to this program, MAD is a side ministry project, it's not my nine to five. I actually run my own business, helping business owners to leverage technology and digital marketing to help their businesses to grow. Being saturated in the world of business, there is one important lesson every entrepreneur learns early on and it’s one that is driven home when you go to business school. The lesson? That you don’t invest money into anything that won’t end up making you a profit.

    While at first glance that lesson is isolated to the world of business, the longer I live the more I realize this so-called business principle really is just a shadow of a Biblical truth that you and are called to live by. And that is: we shouldn’t be investing our time, energy, money, passion, or efforts, into anything that won’t bring a return when it comes to the Kingdom of God. Just like I wouldn't invest my business funds or recommend my clients invest business funds into any venture that wouldn’t produce a return, I am wasting my life and the limited time and energy I have, if I’m not careful to make sure that what I spend my time and energy on matters in the grand scheme of growing in my relationship with Christ and living out the Great Commision.

    An Important Question


    In the book of Matthew Jesus poses a question related to this very subject.  

    And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? Matthew 16:26


    Jesus asks this question and in it, shows us the true value our soul has. And the implication is there is nothing in this world that could possibly compare to the worth of our souls. No amount of wealth, power, prestige, or fame could ever outweigh its price. So if our soul, and by extension, the souls of the people around us, are of utmost value, then we are wasting our lives if we are investing any time, energy or effort, into things that don’t impact souls for eternity. 

    At the end of our lives, 

    Our stock portfolio will be worthless to us.

    Our achievements will be a distant memory, our diplomas will be hidden away. 

    Our trophies will be thrown out.

    Someone will replace us at work. 

    Our favorite sports team will never have known our names.

    Our bank accounts will be transferred to someone else. 

    But what will matter, what we will take with us, is our soul and depending on who it belonged to in this life will determine where it will reside in the next. And the only efforts from earth that will carry into eternity is the work we did building the kingdom of God. That’s it.

    Which is probably why Jesus taught us the following:

    Don't store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:19-20


    And then over 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 we are taught:

    For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have-Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials-gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. 1 Corinthians 3:11-15


    When We Get To Heaven


    I don’t know about you, but when I get to heaven, I don’t want to get there smelling like smoke after escaping through a wall of flames with nothing of eternal value to show for a lifetime lived. I want to know that my life was spent investing in what matters and what is profitable, for both myself and those around me, for all eternity. I don’t want to get to heaven alone, but rather meet person after person who I helped to get there, just like so many were used by God to help me come to saving faith in Him. Do you agree? Then let’s commit to live differently, investing our lives wisely today into what will count for an eternity of tomorrows.

    So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Ephesians 5:15-16
    Return To The Impact Devotional Archive