Managing Money, Gaining Trust: The Spiritual Link
Luke 16:11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
Nothing speaks of the condition of one’s ability to be trusted better than the way he manages or mismanages his money. This text is very intriguing to me because of the emphasis it places on our need to be able to manage our money properly. It goes so far as to put a direct connection between the materialistic and the spiritual. This is one of those verses that, when I read it, I thought to myself, “Now, why didn’t I ever hear one sermon or Sunday school lesson on this verse?”
As a matter of fact, one would get the impression by many teachers today that money has little to no direct correlation with the spiritual at all, except of course when it comes to tithes and offerings. However, Jesus teaches that our Lord will base His decision to trust you with the true riches (which we might refer to as Kingdom affairs) based upon how faithful you are with your own personal money.
It is very important for those of us in leadership in the church world today to understand the necessity of walking with integrity as it pertains to fiscal responsibility. The mismanagement of money can pull a ministry and its effectiveness down just as quickly as any other issue. It ought to be our prayer today that God would teach us and help us to learn and practice these principles even at the most elementary levels of our personal lives so that nothing can bleed over into our ministries to jeopardize what God has entrusted us with.
If the truth were known, God would open up new doors of ministry and opportunity for us if we would only prove ourselves to be faithful with what He has already given us. Too often it is the case that we are not content to maximize our potential where we are; we are always looking for promotion to the next level without being willing to earn that promotion. However, in God’s economy, it does not work that way. God wants to grow us into our next level. Could it be that the reason we are not at our next level is the fact that we have stunted our own growth by an unwillingness to become more responsible with what God has already given us?
Our character is defined by our stewardship practices; let us then be found faithful and trustworthy for our Lord.
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
Nothing speaks of the condition of one’s ability to be trusted better than the way he manages or mismanages his money. This text is very intriguing to me because of the emphasis it places on our need to be able to manage our money properly. It goes so far as to put a direct connection between the materialistic and the spiritual. This is one of those verses that, when I read it, I thought to myself, “Now, why didn’t I ever hear one sermon or Sunday school lesson on this verse?”
As a matter of fact, one would get the impression by many teachers today that money has little to no direct correlation with the spiritual at all, except of course when it comes to tithes and offerings. However, Jesus teaches that our Lord will base His decision to trust you with the true riches (which we might refer to as Kingdom affairs) based upon how faithful you are with your own personal money.
It is very important for those of us in leadership in the church world today to understand the necessity of walking with integrity as it pertains to fiscal responsibility. The mismanagement of money can pull a ministry and its effectiveness down just as quickly as any other issue. It ought to be our prayer today that God would teach us and help us to learn and practice these principles even at the most elementary levels of our personal lives so that nothing can bleed over into our ministries to jeopardize what God has entrusted us with.
If the truth were known, God would open up new doors of ministry and opportunity for us if we would only prove ourselves to be faithful with what He has already given us. Too often it is the case that we are not content to maximize our potential where we are; we are always looking for promotion to the next level without being willing to earn that promotion. However, in God’s economy, it does not work that way. God wants to grow us into our next level. Could it be that the reason we are not at our next level is the fact that we have stunted our own growth by an unwillingness to become more responsible with what God has already given us?
Our character is defined by our stewardship practices; let us then be found faithful and trustworthy for our Lord.
~ Pastor Gary Caudill