See It God’s Way
#HeartForTheWord
Luke chapter 16 records an interesting story that Jesus told His disciples about a money manager who was about to get fired from his job. The guy’s boss had been told that this particular employee was wasting his goods. When the guy found out, he went about shrewdly handling his boss’s business so that by the time the boss got ready to fire him, the guy had gotten his act together. Still being considered an “unjust steward,” his boss still commended him for being slick. Jesus ends that part of the story, not telling us we should be sly and cagey, but by making the point that we do have to keep our eyes open when dealing with a world that doesn’t honor God. “For the sons of this world,” He says, “are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light” Luke 16:8 (NKJ).
Jesus moves on from this story to teach about how we ought to view and handle money and responsibility. We are to be “faithful in what is least,” and then we can be trusted to be “faithful also in much” Luke 16:10. He also says that we cannot “serve two masters,” because we’ll love one and despise the other. We cannot serve both God and money (Luke 16:13).
Listening in on this conversation were the Pharisees who loved money. Of course, this discussion rubbed them the wrong way so they took Jesus to task. As always, Jesus had a comeback ready for them. He said, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God” Luke 16:15. The religious leaders, the ones who were expected to put God first and all else second, were guilty of loving money more than they loved God. They were in error in their thinking because they justified their rush for the dollar (or denarii or shekels in their case) as something spiritual.
Jesus is not saying that we don’t need money. He is warning us, though, to keep our hearts right about money. We are to see money—and indeed everything else in life—as God sees it. “For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”
The society in which we live sees lots of things differently than God sees them. Do we have the guts to stand on and defend God’s views when confronted by the opposite view on any subject? Do we even know what God’s views are on contemporary topics such as the use of money, how to spend our time, sex and sexuality, health issues, the environment, child rearing, etc.? “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” James 1:5 (NKJ). Worship God today for being the Wisdom-giver who can and will let us know how to see things His way.
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©2014 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.
Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release, Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387), at bookstores, and on all major online book buying sites.
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Also still available: Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame
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