Financial planners have a hard time convincing people to look ahead instead of focusing on today, this week, or this year. "Don't think just one year ahead,"they'll tell you. "Think thirty years ahead."  But the truth is, thinking thirty years ahead is only slightly less shortsighted than thinking thirty days ahead.  Wise people think ahead not just to the retirement years, not merely to the end of their earthly life,but to eternity.  We shouldn't say,"Think thirty years ahead,"but"Think thirty million years ahead." 

 

Financial counselors point out the difference between investing the same yearly amounts in an individual retirement account starting at age twenty-five or age forty.  At retirement, the bottom-line difference is huge.  This is good insight for the Christian who is storing up for eternity:  The sooner you get started, the more you'll have awaiting you.

 

A financial counselor will say,"You can't go back at age sixty-five and snap your fingers to compensate for forty years of poor planning."  But what's far more important is that you can't reach the end of your life, snap your fingers, and compensate for a lifetime of poor planning to meet God.  The rich fool is proof of that.

 

God's eternal prospectus bears a careful look in light of its guaranteed rate of interest.  Jesus promises an ultimate return of a hundred times - a 10,000 percent rate of interest that lasts forever (Matthew 19:29).  What earthly investment compares to that?

 

Based on Christ's words, let me assume the role of"eternal financial counselor"and offer some advice:

 

 

Unbelievers see with what Jesus called the"bad eye".  The Christian's view of finances, seen through a"good eye,"should be radically different.  True, we may participate in some of the same earthly investments.  Occasionally our short-term goals will appear similar.  But our long term goals and purposes should be fundamentally different.