In Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11 we read “For I know the thoughts (plans) that I have toward you, says the Lord, thoughts (plans) of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope”.

This is the Lord speaking through Jeremiah saying to His people that He will bring restoration to them and give them a future and hope of a life worth living. God is in the restoration business. He is well able to restore the years that the locusts have eaten away.

Perhaps you find yourself in a time in your life where you are feeling like things haven’t gone exactly the way you had planned. You had dreams and aspirations to do great things in your life, you were going to make a difference. You had grand ideas of how you were going to change the world and be an influence for good. But, over the years, things began to happen, obstacles entered onto your path, challenges came your way and little by little you began to lose grip on your future and little by little your dreams began to fade away until you found yourself where you are now.

You cry out to God, waiting to see if He will hear your prayers, but the Heavens seem like brass. You feel confused, angry and hurt. You are at a point in your life that you don’t know how you got there, a place you didn’t want to be and you feel alone. God sees you where you are. He knows the pain that you feel in your heart, He sees your wounds, and He cares for you. God hears your heart’s cry and He hears the groaning of your spirit.

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Jesus said “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal”. Then, later in the same chapter, Jesus says “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you”.

We see today, more than ever, a focus on saving and accumulating wealth. Our society is obsessed and drunk with the relentless pursuit of an ever higher and higher standard of living. Pursuing a life of luxury, pleasure and ease. I believe one of the primary components of this lifestyle is the owning of and emphasis on Mutual Funds. I have coined the phrase “The Mutual Fund Society”.

Our society has no time for anything that gets in the way of personal endeavor and self-gratification. Our society has developed a defiant sense of self-entitlement. The advertisement industry only serves to fuel and perpetuate this self-focus. You see advertisement after advertisement that puffs the ego of the individual and fosters a sense of extreme self-entitlement. They tell us “you can have it all now, you deserve it, you don’t want to get left behind, you can be rich, you don’t have to wait, you can have anything you imagine”.

And then, there is the ever increasing emphasis on retirement and saving for it. One of the instruments for doing this is the Mutual Fund. The ability for the average individual to be able to use such a financial instrument is a more recent phenomenon. But now, these funds are set up to operate almost like a bank account. And, the banks want your money in these funds. They tell you that your future will not be secure unless you have one (or several) of these funds. And, the banks compete by implying that some are better than others and that your financial fate is in your choice of a Mutual Fund.

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