We often stand in front of vending machines, pondering a very hard decision. We put our money in and push the button. Usually, we get what we just paid for, but not always. Sometimes nothing comes. We push the button again and again. Not only do we not get our selection, but the coin return isn't working either. Those most frustrating times of all are when you're desperate enough to try again, and maybe again, putting in your money - getting nothing in return.
That vending machine turns out to be an investment with no return. You may have made financial investments like that, where you put a lot in, but you got very little back. You may have invested very heavily in a relationship, or even several relationships, only to be disappointed with the return.
There are people who have invested heavily in a marriage and they've ended up with little to show for all they gave. You may be one of them. We invest so much of our life in our children, sometimes to be disappointed with the return in their lives. We keep giving more and more to be successful and pouring into what we thought would give us security or approval, hoping it will finally pay off. For many, it's loneliness that comes back, or stress, or hurt, or regrets over all we paid for.
Isaiah 55:1-2 is for all of us who have made some disappointing life investments. God says, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare."
God's offer is simple, "Come to Me and I will give you what all your searching and all your spending has never delivered, and I'll give it to you without cost." The reason none of our earth-investments have been able to satisfy the thirst in our heart is because we've been trying to get from them what we were supposed to get from a personal relationship with our Creator - which we have totally missed.
In Isaiah, that same book of the Bible, God says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). No one but the God who made you can fill the hole in your heart. Your sin has cut you off from Him, but God did something amazing to get you back. He invested His greatest treasure: His one and only Son.
Jesus invested in you His blood and His life when He took on Himself all the shame and all the hell of all your sin when He died on the cross. That's why you accept God's invitation "without cost" because all your goodness and all your religion can't do a thing to remove your sin or get you into heaven - only Jesus can, only He paid the price.
Today, you have the opportunity to receive what you could never buy - eternal life and a love relationship with Almighty God. It begins when you tell Him, "Lord, I want what You died to give me. I have no hope but You and Your death on the cross for me. The door is open. Please come in."
There have been so many disappointing investments and so many things that could not do for you what only God could do. Jesus died for you. He will never disappoint you.