The date was October 29, 1929. Historians have named it Black Thursday. On that date the Stock Markets crashed. The country was unprepared, and this event ushered in the Great Depression that would last until 1941. Even though the market was relatively new, many investors had entrusted their entire savings to it. When it crashed, all they had trust in failed them.
Since then, there have been numerous events of rise and fall in the market. Regulatory measures have been installed to regulate the transactions in hopes of avoiding future catastrophic events. When the world began to rely on computers to analyze buy and sell trades and timing the regulators added fail safe mechanisms which shut down transactions if a certain threshold was compromised. The effort again was to build trust.
Some look at the market as gambling. In actuality, the market is no different than any other investment that you invest in to gain a return on your money (except perhaps the piggy bank hid at home. Which. even then, bears a risk of theft or loss if your home burns down and you get no return). My point in this is each method still requires trust. Trust though goes afoul when it is placed in an institution.
In the Christian’s case, trust, whether you invest in the market or not, should be in the person of Jesus Christ. He sustains all things and only He is worthy of that trust.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NASB)
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
Thank you for your faithfulness. Pastor Larry
