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We must remember that God remains the owner, and he may one day tell us it is time for those investments to be put to work in his kingdom. The temptation to think of God's assets as "ours" is one that increases with investment success, and we need to periodically remind ourselves of this fact.

From time to time, I'm convinced, God uses financial setbacks to jog our memory about who really owns it all. When there's a major free-fall in the market, or some particular investment heads south, or there's some other significant assault on the assets God put into our hands—that's the time to repeat aloud a few times: "It all belongs to God."

J. Raymond Albrektson is associate professor of New Testament at the International School of Theology, Rancho Cucamonga, California, and the author of Living Large: How to Live Well—Even on a Little.

Dr. J. Raymond Albrektson is an associate professor at the International School of Theology.

Albrektson also teaches short courses (typically Old Testament Survey, New Testament Survey, Church History Survey, Introduction to Inductive Bible Study) around the world, most recently in the former countries of the USSR.

Click here for listings of articles Albrektson has published.

His book, Living Large: How to Live Well—Even on a Little, is available from Worthy books.

Previous Christianity Today stories about investment and finances include:

We're in the Money! | How did evangelicals get so wealthy, and what has it done to us? (June 9, 2000)

The Culture of the Market: A Christian Vision | A Coptic bishop explains biblical economics to a Muslim newspaper. (Dec. 6, 1999)

Keeping Up with the Amish | We evangelicals have made a too-easy peace with the inroads of consumer culture. (Oct. 4, 1999)

Pious Profits? | 'Socially responsible' investing grows popular. (Sept. 6, 1999)

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October 23 2000, Vol. 44, No. 12