Eternal Bank Account

It's so easy to live in the moment. Forgetting the future and living for the present. It's why saving money is so hard. Do you save for a rainy day or buy that new iPhone or new car?

Hmm... if you're like me, you're going for the iPhone.

A friend of mine saves money it itty-bitty increments. She amazes me. About twelve years ago she decided to start saving for her daughters wedding. Five dollars a pay check. Five dollars!

I nearly scoffed. What can you do with five dollars a pay check? Ten dollars a month? One hundred and twenty dollars a year. If she gets married with in the next five years, my friend wouldn't even have a thousand dollars.

Well, she saved her five dollars. The daughter isn't married, yet, and my friend added some money to the savings plan and has set aside almost four thousand dollars.

I'm impressed. But what endurance and discipline. I tell you, she guards that money too. She will have it for her daughter when the time comes.

Some find a quarter and think, "Three more and I have a dollar."

I find a quarter and think, "What can I get with twenty-five cents?"

We are all wired differently. Some save. Some spend.

Our recent home buying and selling ventured started with a set of savers. They owned their house out right and even though they purchased the home at the peek of the market, they were still able to be extravagant when they sold the house to us.

They weren't in debt to anyone so they didn't have to sell at a certain price. They weren't greedy feeling like they had to get "some" of the original price back. No. They felt free to give generously.

Because of their generosity, we were able to forgive a debt owed to us.

As I meditated on the chain of events one afternoon, I wondered how and if God would "reward" our friends in this life or the next. Or if He'd smile in some way on our debt forgiveness.

Oy! It's so like us to think "what's in this for me?"

And it hit me: let this roll-over into my eternal bank account. Look, God will not forget to reward His beloved. No good deed will go unnoticed. Jesus said if you so much as give a cup of cold water it will be remembered!

If we stay in the temporal, the now, we forget there's a life to come. If we demand honor, recompense, reward for all our deeds what will we have in the next life? What will we have to throw at Jesus's feet?

It's like, if we spend our twenty-five cents now, then will we ever have a dollar to get what we need or want?

It's time to consider what's in our eternal bank account. Remember now, God is one who doesn't mind saving a dollar one penny at a time. He LOVES to bless us. So, it's not like you have to preach to stadiums or raise the dead to deposit something into your eternal bank account.

The Lord also rewards us in this life. He understands we need reward. I've actually been talking to Him about reward. I should see the fruit of my labor, you know?

But I also am mindful of my eternal account. I want to reap more in the life to come than in this life. Why? Because this life is fraught with sin and deceit. With sin and selfishness.

When Jesus comes to reign on the earth, He'll deal with sin and injustice. I want to be dealt my reward then! When He's setting things straight.

I don't know what all is to come or how it will look. But if Paul's glimpses into the future are any indication -- eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him -- then I want a piece of that pie!

What about you? Are you sending somethings ahead? What you do with your time, words and money? Invest eternally!