Wealth

So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? Luke 16:11
So as I was walking to work the other day, amongst the various pieces of litter along the way (which by the way, now that I’m mentioning such litter in this devotion my conscience is telling me, “why don’t you just bring a plastic bag with you so that you can clean it up every day as you walk?” – which, by the way, again, is only making me hope that my conscience will forget to ask this question tomorrow morning when I walk out of the door and that my wife, having read this devotion – I’m assuming she reads them – will also forget to remind me….nonetheless I digress) – so anyway – among the pieces of litter, one crumbled up ball of trash catches my eye. And in fact I DO pick this one up. Why? Well, because it is a McDonald’s receipt which just happens to be crumbled up and wrapped around two dollar bills.

In light of the above quoted words of Jesus, different questions come to mind about the person who left this for me to discover and add to my small collection of similar bills.

One – how could this person be so careless?
Two – if this person cannot be trusted with worldly wealth, would God EVER trust him (or her) with “true riches”
Three – what are TRUE riches, anyway?
Four – maybe this person already had TRUE riches, and therefore didn’t care about the money
Five – maybe this person had TRUE riches BECAUSE he knew that money was essentially worthless (compared with true riches, of course) and therefore threw the money out of the window on purpose
Six – maybe this was his way of helping the needy
Seven – maybe he simply littered and lost two bucks in the process
Eight – maybe he did it as a test to see who would pick it up and what that person would do with it (did I mention it ended up in my pocket?)

More importantly, I suppose, are questions about me rather than him.

How careless am I with worldly wealth? Whether throwing it out of the window literally or figuratively with what it gets spent on – does it matter? Could I be better? (WILL I be better?)

How often do I think about the spiritual issues at stake each time I make a purchase or make a financial decision???? (Do you?)

In light of my imperfections regarding finances, how could God ever trust ME with “TRUE riches”? What are these true riches? (I think I could name several, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many which I missed.)

Which type of riches do we spend more time and energy with – desiring, spending, budgeting, investing, working for….?

And why?

Not that I have all of the answers – which may be okay – as the parable that Jesus gives before this quote does more to provoke thought than it does to clarify the “right answer”. But I suppose that is part of the answer – am I letting my thought be provoked – in the sense that EVERY financial decision is in fact a part of my living out my faith in Him.

Whether He ultimately trusts me (and you) may be questionable, but in His GRACE He still seems to give – TRUE riches even more than worldly! And yet thankfully He doesn’t leave me alone to manage such true riches on my own, but through His Spirit comes to me and teaches me and provokes me and sometimes even succeeds in leading me. And through this shows me once again why He not only gives the riches, but how HE indeed IS the truest and richest Treasure.


Prayer: Lord Jesus, whether it be our change from a fast-food purchase or our salary for a year or the greater treasures of love and friendship and forgiveness and the like, thank you for having patience with us as you guide us to manage such things for good. In your precious name. Amen.