Day 5 of 7, a study on trusting God with your money.
A friend of mine had his retirement plan built almost entirely around one company's stock, back before it dropped by half. He's fine now, further down the road, but I remember the year it happened, and I remember thinking that whatever I build my own security on had better be sturdier than a plan.
"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Psalm 73:26
The psalmist doesn't pretend the flesh and heart won't fail. He names it plainly, the body and the emotions both, giving out the way bodies and emotions do. What he's after is what's underneath that failure: a portion that doesn't fail along with it. Not a plan, which can be built well or badly and still ride the market down with everyone else's. A portion. Something already given, already his, not contingent on this quarter's returns.
My 401(k) is a plan. It can fail, at least partly, and probably will in some year I can't predict. My portion is somewhere the market can't reach.
Today's Question
If your plan failed tomorrow, what would still be true about your portion?
A Short Prayer
God, my flesh will fail and my heart already knows it. Thank you for being my portion regardless of what the accounts do this year. Be the strength my plan can't be. Amen.
God bless,
Paul