Managing Wealth Wisely

  ^{Note:  Hooray!  Two slices posted yesterday.  Am well inside the time line today too.  Digest with delight!}

^{Luke 16: 9-15}

 ^{No One Can Serve Two Masters}

⁹ I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

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.”

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. ¹⁵ He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

Each one of us has to face the age-old battle between love of money and love of God. We may not be "filthy rich" but keeping a proper perspective on the use of our wealth, our goods, our time, our talents will keep us busy till we breathe our last. Isn't it amazing how we grow attached to clothes, our "own space", books, keepsakes and other forms of "wealth" besides money itself?  All can be managed well if we remember that, as the play goes, "You (we) Can't Take It With You" (us). As good stewards of these material gifts, we need not be controlled or saddled by them, but, on the contrary, can use them for the betterment of our families, neighbors, and communities. Praying often for wisdom, and balance in managing our gifts, seeking how best to use them to build up God's kingdom as well as keeping our eyes and heart open to the needs of others will make us truer disciples of Jesus.

Bro. Rene