“CURRENCY OF GOD’S LOVE” – May 26

“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.”  Psalm 103:17-18

English: Icon of U.S. currency. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bitcoin is the new currency curiosity.  It is a digital currency in an electronic cash system.  Transactions are completed with the transfer of bitcoins from one person’s ledger to another’s ledger.  However, nothing is really transferred.  Numbers are merely tallied across all the ledgers of those in the bitcoin market.

I like the idea of having a bank where my money resides.  I realize that my bank doesn’t really have a vault with a pile of bills in the corner marked, “JD Blom”.  My money resides at their bank in a ledger stored on a computer.  I use a credit card or a check for most of my purchases.  Ledgers get modified with every swipe of my card.  Money gets tallied from one computer to another with each check processed.  I exchange my dollars more like bitcoins than I care to admit.

Bitcoins have value because people assign them value.  A bitcoin has value based on what you can buy with it.  The value is actually in the transaction.  A bitcoin could become valueless if no one were willing to accept the transaction in exchange for their “real” good or service.  However, that is the problem with any “real” money.  Money is only valuable when people give it value.  The dollar that I have in my wallet is only valuable if the store will accept it in exchange for what we mutually agree is of comparable value.

The problem for any currency is inflation.  The dollar that I have in my wallet cannot buy the same amount of goods and services as the dollar my great, great, grandfather had in his wallet.  The devaluing of currency seems to be inevitable.  I have never known a period when inflation was not occurring to some extent.  Inflation does not illicit much concern when it happens over decades but banks collapse when a currency devalues in terms of weeks and months.

That is when we see people try to move their money to more stable forms of currency.  During the latest financial troubles, many people exchanged their paper money into what they felt was a more lasting currency – gold. The best currencies in any market are those that are stable.  The perfect currency is that which can be counted upon to be of the same value, in good times and in bad times.

Have you ever thought about the love of God in terms of currency?  The love of God is from everlasting to everlasting.  It does not change.  It is through the love of God that we have been saved.  What we have been given by the love of God will never be devalued.   God showed us His love by sending us His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.  God’s love is manifested by His victory over sin for us.

What is the value of God’s love?

The value is in the transaction.  The transaction is eternal life.  What value is that for you?

For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. Psalm 103:14-16

Our own life and that of our family is most people’s treasure.  Most parents will exchange all that they have for the life of their child.  The value of life is very high.  However, our life is a poor currency.  Our life has value for only about 70-80 years and then it becomes valueless.  We invest heavily into something that will be dust in less than a century.  That is not a stable currency.

Where are you investing the value of your life?  Consider all that you do as an investment.  It will be either to dust or eternity.

The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him.  Maybe it is time for a currency transfer.

PRAYER: Lord, forgive me for not valuing your love like I should.  Forgive me for taking it for granted and treating it as common.  I know that it is not even possible for me to truly grasp the extent of the love that you have shown me.  Your steadfast love is as high as the heavens are above the earth; your forgiveness is as far as the east is from the west.  Open my eyes, Lord.  Help me to understand the depths of mercy that you have shown me.  There is nothing of more value than you O’ Lord.  You are high and lifted up; worthy of all praise and honor.  Thank you for loving me.  I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ.   Amen.