What is a long-term spiritual investment?
Spirituality is misplaced more often than not because it belongs to a particular place, a particular time, and a particular type of person. The fact is that without it, all other journeys do not come to completion. Today there is a plethora of information on all forms of investing, financial benefits, health benefits, retirement benefits, and even long-term vacation plans. However, very little consideration is given to a long-term spiritual investment. Perhaps the difficulty lies in the fact that a spiritual investment must be all-encompassing, in which case investing in everything else is investing in spirituality for the long term. Unfortunately without outlining what spirituality entails it is hard to see how this is present in other investments. Below are some tips that define a long-term spiritual investment and how we can implement this in our lives.
Are we doing what we really want to do?
If no one has ever asked us this question, then we should ask ourselves. This is the foundation of a long-term spiritual investment. When we ask ourselves this question, we are looking towards the self and looking for a purpose for our existence. This is not a wasted effort. This is the springboard to peace and understanding. Unless we know who we are and what we stand for, we are like the lifeless objects we make that need our humanity to live. The purpose of this search is to discover the spirit within us, what moves us and what our beliefs are. This in a few words is the preparation of the evaluation plan. It’s getting off the fence and realizing that we want to get more out of life than is usually seen.
Who is important?
Once we have analyzed who we are and what we believe in, the next step is to understand who is important in our lives. Some of us would choose our loved ones, others may choose things like business or even work. The thing to remember here is that those things we have chosen were always there, and therefore we are not seeing or learning anything by choosing what we already know. There is another perspective to consider here and it is what we don’t know, what we are not used to and what controls everything. Looking at things introspectively, if we are not believers, then we would have our first test of faith. Why everything is possible and who controls everything? These questions and many more that may follow will eventually lead us to God. When that happens, our plan has already started and we have made our first payment. God is at the heart of everything we do, whether we choose to believe in him or not. Even questioning his existence we are inviting him into our lives. Faith has to start somewhere and if we haven’t met it then this is as good a place as any. For those of us who are believers, the question of who is important remains relevant because that is when we can begin to address our past, present, and future thoughts in comparison to the values God has given us to live by.
living with god
In this domain we are making regular payments to the plan. We have declared ourselves eligible to live in the House of God and our righteous acts are the regular payments we make to do so. This is not an exercise in observing each payment that enters the bank, that is, we are not robots that perform acts of grace for the purpose of paradise. This is a failure in spirituality. The good must come from our thoughts and our intentions, the good must be justly blessed. This kind of good is obtained through the guidance of the scriptures. The Scripture is the booklet that describes our plan, its purpose, and how we can achieve it. If we learn, listen and practice what we are taught with humility, then we are living in God.
success guarantee
All mundane investment plans have no guarantees. There are none because they are man-made and no man is perfect. In that case, things go wrong, companies go bankrupt, economies decline, and no one can predict what might happen. It is only by faith that there is a guarantee of success in our worldly investments. In a long-term spiritual investment there is a guarantee of success and that is our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Our faith in God is guaranteed through him and once we accept him into our life there is an absolute certainty that we will succeed in this investment. If the Scriptures are our guide to living in God, then Christ is the guarantee to live with him for eternity. There is a code of honor in a long-term spiritual investment that we must carry with us at all times. It is our business card, our visa and our debit card. It is the guarantee that we carry with us throughout life and it is in these words of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ: ‘And on that day you will ask nothing of me. Verily, verily I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name: ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.’