Faithful in the Little Things

Luke 16:9-14, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of wealth or unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into eternal dwellings. He who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth?”

I watch a message from Joel Osteen this past Sunday, and like most of his messages it was about expanding vision so that God can give a bigger blessing. At some point he encouraged his congregation and the TV audience to not give up. That though times are rough now, God has a bigger and better plan. He inferred that the rough times are equated with a time of being faith in a very little so that God will allow you to be faithful in much.

Then as I was looking at my own personal budget this week, and I realized that for the first time in months I was actually going to have a small surplus. These two events orchestrated by God were the fodder for my prayers. What do I do with the surplus? What does it mean to be faithful in the very little? Hasn’t the past 7 + years been a period of faithful in the very little?

And it is true, the past 8 years really have been God saying, “be faithful in a very little thing.” If I am truthful I would say it took me seven years from God telling me to be faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth to come to the place that I actually live by a budget. That’s right, no personal budget for 46 of my 47 years; in spite of having a finance degree, in spite of having run multimillion dollar businesses; in spite of having prepared hundreds of budgets for those businesses... I operating my personal life without one.

Am I saying that being a Christian requires us to operate our finances under a budget?

I think I am.

Look at the parable Jesus tells us in Luke 16. Here a Master (God) discovers His money manager (Us) has “squandered” His wealth. Sensing his impending termination the manager quickly goes to the Master’s debtors and cuts their debts in half; counting on them taking him in after he’s fired. Now here is where it gets a bit confusing.

The Master praises the manager for doing this. Why would the Master praise the manager for stealing? Isn’t stealing a sin? It’s in v 9 that we begin to see in part the lesson. There Jesus says, “make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness.”

Somehow, and for some reason God is watching us in our use of money. Irrespective of how the money is gained, we are rewarded based on its use here on earth. It all belongs to God whether we choose to admit that or not, but if we squander the supply we are given then He does see that. So His encouragement is not to avoid money, but rather be sure to use it frugally, because it’s not your own, and liberally when it makes friends, particularly eternal friends.

And so the parable condenses to this. God is watching your use of money. Not because He wants to make you rich in this lifetime, but because He wants to make you rich in the life to come. Here in this life we spiritually own nothing, in the life to come we “rule and reign with Christ.” In the life to come we are given something (what I do not know) that is based at least in part on our faithfulness with money, and not squandering it. Money usage as a responsibility is not to allow to become a God. It is not to be an obsession, but instead to recognize it is a representation of God’s future creation in heaven. Money represents in some way how we will handle our responsibility in heaven. Be faithful with a very little here, and God knows you will be faithful with much in heaven. Take what He has given us here on the earth and use it for His purpose, and He knows what responsibilities He can trust you with in heaven. 

For me the practicality of this lesson today is a small surplus. Do I put it in savings? Do I spend it on something I want sense I have been without for so long? So I give it away? Or do I pay something off? For me, I hear God saying pay off the bill. For you it may be something completely different. The point is I am not going to squander it, but rather use it for what the Master approves. Today God is going to find me faithful in a very little thing.