Wisdom Gained Through Prayer

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Colossians 4:2

A friend of mine, whom we will call Tom, called this week looking for financial advice. He is a unfortunately generally unaware of the workings of investing. He was very unhappy with his financial advisor and due to the Corona virus had seen his saving shrink considerably. Far more than the rest of the stock market. 

His mistake was he went with a financial advisor who invested in some highly speculative places. Naturally, in a steep downturn, like we are having, these investments will perform poorly. And these investments also contain very high fees, further eroding his nest egg. 

Instead of answering his question, I asked him two questions. The first is what were his goals? In other words, what was he saving for; retirement, a nest egg to cushion difficult times or college. 

The second question was had he prayed before he made his decision? And had to gone to God with to seek advice? 

In both cases he had done neither, leaving him exposed to luck and the wiles of a person he had only met with for an hour or so. 

Ironically, the same day, another person, whom we will call Sally, called seeking the same advice. In this difficult time, she had a different plan. She was looking to save money wherever she could and was cutting household expenses quickly. To her cash was king. She wasn’t looking to score a big return, instead she was looking to protect her family. 

She knew that the Corona virus not only affected her family’s health, but also her ability to provide for her family. She knew jobs would be at a premium and this wasn’t the time to get risky.