With so many baby boomers entering retirement age, our culture is being bombarded with ads and information about investments. Aware that we might live well into our nineties (some even beyond that), we know we’ll need income we can count on to sustain us through the uncertainties of old age. Those who trusted Bernie Madoff and others like him were shocked to find out that promises of good returns on their money didn’t guarantee it. Instead of being helped, they were robbed.

Christians struggle with the same questions everyone else struggles with: What’s the best place to put my extra money so it pays dividends I can count on for the future? But we have additional questions to wrestle with that those who don’t care about God’s kingdom need not consider, like … How much should I put away for a rainy day and how much should I give away, trusting that God will take care of me if I’m generous with others? How risky should I be with my money? Where can I invest with the best chance of reaping not only material gains but also eternal ones?

When Tony and I were a young couple, we never had enough to think about investing. We pretty much lived from hand to mouth, from one paycheck to the next. Like many people that age, we didn’t think much about investing for the future even when our financial conditions improved (when we owned a business). We just spent more! Once we went into full time ministry, the question became a moot one as our salaries dropped dramatically.

But even in our ignorance and lack of planning with financial investments, we did learn some valuable lessons about spiritual investments and how they never fail to pay off handsomely. When we gave out of our poverty (whether it was time or energy or money) to see the Kingdom of God advanced, He noticed, and He repaid us richly. Sometimes it took many years to see the result, but He never allowed us to out-give Him. He always made sure that we had what we needed for our daily lives and He multiplied our meager offerings into something far more significant and lasting to benefit others.

Just this week, Tony heard of one investment return that took us completely by surprise. Nearly 40 years ago we were living in a small town in Ontario, Canada. We were serving Jesus with all we had, privileged to be a part of a vibrant Christian community that was experiencing a full-fledged revival. Lives were dramatically changed as the Holy Spirit swept across the whole area. One of the families who came to know Christ lived right across the street from us. Our lives intersected almost every day for a while, so we were well acquainted not only with the couple but their children as well.

Imagine our astonishment when we heard from the man now serving as one of the pastors at the church we started in Kanata about 25 years ago, telling us that he had married one of the daughters in this family. He called to thank us for our work for the Kingdom in that area. He also was rejoicing in how God had given him a lovely, godly wife from that spiritual seed sown so long ago.

Spiritual investments are the only sure investments! Why? Because they are backed up by the most powerful, rich, and secure institution of all – God himself. Jesus assured us, over and over again in the Sermon on the Mount, that His father sees what we do, what we give, in secret and He makes sure we get a reward for it. He tell us not to do our acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them, but rather, to act out of our love for God and others. When we do, He takes note and rewards us. We can’t lose on this investment! What we sow in weakness and poverty, He can multiply to become something vast and far-reaching in its implications and blessings.

So, He instructs us in Matthew 6:19-20: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” where none of these things happen. No one can take our spiritual investments away from us. We can’t lose them, they don’t devalue, and they are as secure as the very character of God himself. The One who cannot lie promises us a full return on all we entrust to Him. But do we really believe Him?

Sometimes I think we get confused about what we are to invest. Is it just a matter of money, that is, making sure we tithe on what we earn and give to the special offering needs that arise in our church? Is it investing time and energy to lots of humanitarian causes, to make the world a better place? Is it to exercise great faith, so God can do great things in our midst? Is it to invest our talents and skills to help build the Kingdom – preaching, teaching, mentoring, praying, encouraging, building, creating, writing, etc.?  The list could go on, detailing ways we can serve God in our world.

But all these things, as valuable and important as they are, are not the currency of the Kingdom. They are not, in and of themselves, what God can always give a return on. How do I know that? The apostle Paul makes it plain in one of the most famous chapters of the Bible – 1 Corinthians 13. When he lays out “the most excellent way” to represent God in the world, to be the body of Christ, he lists a lot of things that seem to be quite extraordinary – speaking in tongues, possessing all knowledge about spiritual realities, supernatural faith, giving away all earthly possessions, even giving our bodies to be burned for the sake of the truth. Yet, he assures us, none of these extraordinary things matter if they are not done in the spirit and power of God’s love. At the very end of the chapter he sums it up: three things remain after everything is said and done. They are faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is LOVE.

Whatever valuable things we do for God and His kingdom, if they are not fueled and motivated by His love, they won’t necessarily be rewarded or yield spiritual returns. If we want to invest our lives wisely, we’ll want to make sure we keep this reality at the forefront of our minds and hearts. But here’s the rub: We seldom see our motivations accurately and are poorly equipped to make sound judgments about whether or not our works are meeting this criteria, whether they are being done with love or not. We need the illumination of the Holy Spirit to help us sort through our real reasons for wanting to be involved in a particular work, ministry, act of kindness, or conversation.

Sentiment, emotion, and idealistic fervor can deceive us into thinking we “love” in a biblical way. But God’s love is not any of those things. It’s a commitment to the well-being of the object of His love, regardless of the cost (as illustrated so beautifully in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross) and it has as its drive a desire to see God’s purposes advanced, again, even at great cost to our own comfort and will. As Bob Goff’s book title says Love Does — it doesn’t just think about what might bless another but puts into practice what can truly bring them closer to God.

We’ve all heard the adage, “You can’t take it with you” (when you die). When it comes to material wealth and possessions, that’s true. But the good news is that we can, as God’s children, take our spiritual wealth with us! No investments in love here will ever be wasted or forgotten – they will keep on paying dividends after we’re gone, and when we stand before our Savior we will have the joy of hearing Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share [my] happiness!” (Matthew 25:21). Notice it wasn’t the amount of good things the servant did that was commended in this parable. He had only invested “a few things.” But they were invested with the right heart, and that was what mattered. They were done so that his master would receive a return on his property, not for personal gain. And the little he did for the sake of the master was richly rewarded and commended.

We can truly never out-give God. He will make sure we receive far more than we ever give to Him. When our motive is love — love for God and love for others – we aren’t really thinking about any reward we might receive. And that’s just the point! Because we aren’t busy looking after our own interests and making sure we prosper, God makes that His responsibility. He delights to reward loving, obedient children, just as all good parents do.

“Love never fails” Paul wrote, and the longer you walk with God, the more you know this is true. As the currency of the Kingdom, we need never worry about this investment. It will yield its rewards every time it is given out, even when the recipient fails to appreciate it or notice. God sees the things done in secret and rewards them openly. So let’s become lavish givers of love and watch to see how God multiplies it.

Perhaps the certainty of return on deeds done with love is what motivated C. S. Lewis to make the wise observation, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

We don’t have to be wealthy or clever or particularly gifted to make a great difference for the Kingdom of God. We all have the currency needed to invest wisely and productively. Paul said that “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). None of us have more or less of the Spirit than another. We all have equal access to this important resource and it is our choice if we want to invest a lot of our lives into seeking His gift of God’s love or not. The first fruit of the Holy Spirit listed in Galatians 5 is love. He promises to magnify this fruit in us as we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

What we do to express our love isn’t as important as why we do it and how lavish we are in giving it. Remember the principle of sowing seed: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6). We should be hilarious lovers and givers, knowing we will never lose on what we are investing. He will take the little we have and multiply it to reach further than we’ve ever dreamed. It’s a sure bet, and in this world we find very few things that are.

Begin to look around and see where you can sow love. Its returns work equally well in any situation, whether you are visible to the world or not, whether you touch a few lives or thousands of them. A phone call can come years later, reminding you that God never forgets “the labor of love you have shown toward his name” (Hebrews 6:10 ). And when you get to eternity and see how your investments were used in the hand of Almighty God, you’ll be thrilled to have been a part of something so much greater than your individual life.

This is something you can take with you, so don’t hold back. Use that currency with abandon and find the joy promised by Jesus. He wants us to have a part in turning human history around, just as He did. By being obedient to His Father, He fulfilled His calling of love in the cross and resurrection. Now, He invites us into His life of love and assures us we can enjoy the returns all the way into eternity! Can you think of a better investment than that?