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When my niece was little, I gave her two dollars to put in the offering plate. She stared at that money, and I could see the wheels turning in her mind.
One of our favorite things to do together was go to Target and pick out one special something. We limited it to $10, so I knew what she was thinking.
This would be two extra dollars to spend.
She looked up at me, a question formulating in her mind.
Knowingly, I smiled, and said, ”it’s your choice what you do with that money. Our giving to the Lord should be from the heart, not from a requirement or being forced. Just like our love for Him.”
She looked back at the money.
Oh how I wanted to say, “you better put all of that in there!”.
But I didn’t.
I waited.
The offering plate made it to our row. I took it in my hand, placed my check inside and handed it to her.
The moment of truth.
What would she do?
Slowly, her little hand grasped the edge of the plate. For just a moment, she held it.
I looked away so she wouldn’t feel pressured by me.
The plate was gone.
I glanced over and there was my niece, head lowered and empty-handed.
I leaned over and said, “I’m proud of you.”
She smiled and said, “it’s okay, cause I know you’ve got more in your purse for when we go to the mall.”
Luke 16:13
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Jesus was giving another example to not only his disciples, but others who were in the crowd, the Pharisees.
In His parable of the “shrewd steward”, Jesus compared earthly to heavenly – earthly wealth to eternal wealth and earthly wisdom to eternal wisdom.
What should we do with our money? The first thing is to recognize that it’s all God’s anyways. Even though it’s acquired here on earth, we can use it to further the Kingdom of God. If we focus on our own needs, wants and desires, we will get wrapped up in the ways of the world and forget about why we have that money in the first place. Just as the verse says, you cannot serve both – God and money.
But when you serve the Lord, He will give you exactly what’s needed. We may not receive an immediate reward for how we use that money here on earth. There may not be an extra trip to Target with money in the purse.
But there will be rewards in Heaven.
Just think. What if the money you gave to support a young man’s mission trip encouraged him to surrender to the Lord’s ministry and become a church planter?
What if the money you gave to the church was used to help with a community project and one person came to know Jesus through it?
What if the money you sent to Lifeword helped put up a new radio tower in the mountains of the Philippines and someone heard the gospel for the very first time?
What if…
We could go on and on.
The Lord has entrusted us with financial means in order to live for Him.
Are we doing that?
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