Where do you spend your money?

Our nation is wealthy. 30.8% of the wealth in the world is right here in our country, while only 4.2% of the population lives in the US. The next closest nation is China. They own about 18% of the world’s wealth. Then Japan own about 5% of the total wealth in the world. Another fun fact, 10% of the people in our nation own 60% of the wealth in our country. While we are the most charitable in total giving, Indonesia, Ukraine, Kenya, and Liberia give more per capita than the United States.

I don’t bring this up to make a political point. I was reading Luke 16 this morning and the Parable of the Shrewd Manager was brought up. In this scripture, Luke tells us that a rich man found out about his crooked manager. Before this shrewd manager could be fired, he went out to reduce the debt from several of the rich man’s debtors. The rich man praised this manager. Why?

Well, the typical way for the manager to earn a living was attaching a fee on top of what people owed the rich man. He earned a “tax” of sorts as a collection agent. When the manager reduced the debt, he was not cheating the rich man, he was cheating himself. He was eliminate HIS profit in order to gain friends. 

I have always read this and wondered how in the world the shrew manager earned the praise  of his rich boss. Now it makes sense. In Luke 16:9, we are told the lesson we should learn:

“Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.’ (Luke 16:9)

 WHAT DO WE SPEND OUR MONEY ON?

I know that not everyone is rich, but what wealth we do accumulate should not be used for our personal glory, but should be used for the glory of the Lord. When we give out of our riches, in a sacrificial way, God honors that. This wealth does not just include money, it also includes time and other valuable resources. When we give to others we build relationships that can lead to opportunities sharing Jesus and his gospel message. We beg people to ask the question, “Why did you give, when you didn’t have to?” Our answer is simply, the Lord compels us to use our gifts to help others and to build his kingdom. 

Although we are not perfect and I know we spend some money with selfish motivation, we really try to live a simple life and have money we can use to help others. Like most people we need to do better. After verse 9 is another important lesson we can learn:

“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?”

We are given our riches by the Lord, if we use them wisely and for his purposes, we will get more. God wants to grow his kingdom through us. When we use our resources to grow his kingdom, we will receive more and more and more!