Anchor My Faith

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Author: Stephen Weller
729 words, 4 minutes read time

Is It a Heart to Money or Heart to God Connection?

Scripture: Luke 16:10-13

In the previous lesson we dealt with the meaning of the master commending the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. In this lesson we will look at the importance of being faithful and honest.

^{Lk 16:10} “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ¹¹ If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”

With Luke 16:10, I like to connect Matthew 25:21 ESV: “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” As I write and post these studies, I join with others who write, teach and preach the word; some who stand before thousands and have over a million following them on social media. There are times when I think about this, I wonder if my work really counts for much, and then these verses comes to mind and I realize that value is not determined by counts but by faithfulness and trust.

What causes the master to say well done? It is not the result of how much, but the result of being faithful over a little. I realize from this that my reward could be greater from the little that I do than the reward for the one who did much but was not faithful in what was being done. To the one who is faithful over little has been given the promise to be set over much because he has proven himself. I often wonder how this work of being faithful in daily writing and praying over these lessons will one day expand to be something big after my death. How might this impact my future assignments in the kingdom of God? Is God using this work to test my faithfulness with little to prepare me for something big in the life to come?

Besides testing us for faithfulness in our work, God test us in our honesty with what he gives us. Do we treat just a small amount in the same way we would a larger amount? If a cashier gives back too much change do you simply overlook it, or do you point it out to protect her? If God can’t trust you with a few pennies, do you think he could trust you with more?

If we are not faithful in managing the unrighteous things of the world then how can God expect us to be faithful with true riches; with the treasures of heaven? Our faithfulness and trustworthiness in this life will determine the extent of the “true riches” permanently given to us in God’s kingdom. How ashamed and deeply grieved we may be when we stand before him in our evaluation and realized how we neglected to heed these verses.

^{Lk 16:13} “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

The same wording can be found at Matthew 6:24, but is not the same time of teaching. Jesus taught the principle several times and used the same words for his conclusion. Matthew 6:24 was covered in Lesson H475. Both the Luke and Mathew example express the same thing. If we are truly disciples of Jesus, we must make a choice between serving God and serving money. To which is our heart connected?

Conclusion

How much do you own that is not essential for life? How much that you call essential could be downgraded without a severe impact to your life? How strong is your resistance in scaling back to the basics and investing the savings in kingdom work? Would you still worship God, or curse him if persecution were to come and drive you back to the raw basics of life? So, which are you serving: God or money?