God made an investment in you. Is he getting a good return on what he put into you?

If you watch the markets and invest money, you understand the need for a return on your investment. Sometimes you choose really right and your money doubles overnight, and sometimes the bottom falls out of that investment and you lose it all. It’s a gamble. It’s a risk. Sometimes it really pays off and you just wish you would have put more into that one stock.

There are new millionaires walking around today because of their wise investment in GameStop. Me, well I’m a hundrednaire because I invested, but I only invested a little.

The fact that you’re breathing and alive today means God still has his investment in YOU. He believes in your potential. He knows the impact you can make. He sees exactly what you can do with all he has given you and says it is good, REAL GOOD, so he’s given you more time to grow.

God’s not done with you yet. Your full potential is still in the process of evolving into more than you imagined possible for a girl like you coming from where you came from. Oh God knew exactly what he was doing when he put you right where you started, it was perfect positioning. He knew exactly what he was doing when you went through that hardship and that darkness, it was fully equipping. Oh yes, all for a time such as this.

Now is the time for his investment in you to come back with a good return.

What has he given you?

Have you had some good ideas over the years? A possible business, or book, ministry, or community. Every good idea you’ve ever had originated with God. That idea was given to you as an investment for you to do something with. Now, what happened with that idea?

Is he getting a good return on his investment? Seriously, are you doing anything with those great ideas you have, or is it sitting there in a journal collecting dust? Talked about, but not brought about. Dreamed on, but not acted on. Envisioned but not engaged.

Why haven’t you taken the next step on that dream? Why are you allowing precious days, weeks, months and years of your VERY limited life pass without doing something with these ideas? Give God some return on that investment girl and do something with it!

The very podcast you’re listening to today is the result of a good idea God gave my husband and I many years ago and one day we decided to hit record with a shaky voice and naive assumption no one would really listen. It was God’s investment and my opportunity to give him a good return.

What is God’s investment in you? That’s your opportunity to give him a good return. Don’t waste that opportunity!

As a follower of Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living within us. Why doesn’t that still blow our minds? Why doesn’t that just shock the crap out of us every time we hear it? It’s like it’s grown old news. Yes, the spirit of the Almighty God now lives in me and directs me … big deal. DARN RIGHT IT’S A BIG DEAL! THAT’S AMAZING.

And it’s His Spirit that whispers ideas to us. That wasn’t your bright idea for you to receive credit … that’s the Holy Spirit guiding you. Have you been taking full credit here? Creativity originates with the Almighty. He created the entire universe with the greatest of care over every detail, then he placed that creativity within you along with an invitation for you to create along with him in his world.

The greatest thing you ever dreamed up originated in him. Does he get the credit? Have you thanked him for the investment of creativity and good ideas in you?

It’s God’s investment, now this is your opportunity to do something with it.

Have you ever met one of those people who just can’t accept a compliment. They make it all awkward and almost make you regret saying something good. You compliment her hair, and she proceeds to tell you it’s been 6 months since her last hair appointment and start digging for all the grays to prove how bad her hair really is. Dang, kinda wish you wouldn’t have said anything, right?

Or how about the person who responds to every compliment with that really phony and completely robotic, “all glory to God.” It makes me throw up in my mouth a little. Why say it if you don’t really mean it? That doesn’t give God glory. That kind of paints an image of a God I would never connect with.

What if instead we started responding to a compliment on our talents with “ahhhh, thank you so much … I’m just trying to do something good with God’s investment.”

That puts things in alignment. It originates with God. He is above and I am below. All blessings, all talent, all good ideas, all creativity flows from him and I get to catch some of it! His investment flows into my life, now I get to do something good with it!

Jesus says in John 15:16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.”

We are fruit bearers. We grow what God has put within us. We grow those Spirit led ideas into reality. We grow those talents into businesses. We grow those connections into life giving relationships. We grow that grace and mercy into movements that change lives.

This is what we’re here to do my sisters. We’re here to discover the investment God put within each of us individually and bear the fruit into the world. Grow what he started in you. Use what he has given you. And keep bringing the return back to him with humble gratitude.

I imagine the day we get to Heaven and stand before our creator. I imagine him showing us the movie of our entire lives and smiling over what we did with his investment in us. And I imagine realizing all I didn’t do that I could have done and him saying “My girl, it was never about that anyway. My grace is sufficient for you. Welcome to paradise where an eternity of opportunity awaits you, and this time you won’t miss any of it!”

Take a big deep breath now. We put way too much pressure on our performance and the desire to do things perfectly. God doesn’t need your good works, trust me. But wouldn’t it feel good to know you used what he invested in you, and brought a few other people to see what God put in them too?

Yeah, let’s do that! Let’s just bare fruit!