Dr. Dan Hayden •
Are your investments profitable? Now, I’m not talking about your IRA or your mutual funds. What I’m talking about are your spiritual investments. Are you investing in things that will profit you in the spiritual realm?
We Americans love to talk about profit. When the stock market is down and our economy is facing a recession, we become gloomy and depressed. But just let the market become profitable again, and the smiles return to our faces.
There’s a more important area of profit than the economy, though. Spiritual profit is the ultimate profit, for it has eternal ramifications. In 2 Timothy 3:16 & 17, the Bible says,
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
Now what this is saying is that the Bible is profitable for everything necessary to make you the person God wants you to be.
The word “profitable” is a word that means “useful or beneficial.” It comes from a root that has the idea of heaping up or accumulating something that will give you a benefit or an advantage.
So, that’s what the Word of God does. There is an accumulating benefit that comes from the regular study of God’s Word. It builds into your life day by day, things that are beneficial to becoming a mature person in Christ.
That’s how education works, you know. First you learn simple math, then algebra and trigonometry, and finally – calculus and theoretical math. It all accumulates to making you a competent mathematician.
Well, many Christians have never gotten beyond simple Bible stories. But there is some much more in the Bible, and the more you study, the more profitable it will be.
Do you want real, lasting profit? Well, just study your Bible!