May 7: Being faithful in little

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. 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? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own? (Luke 16:9-12 - New Living Translation)

Here Jesus tells us to use money and earthly possessions to prepare eternal homes for ourselves. Whatever comes into our hands is from God, and must be used in the right way. If we believe in Jesus, we belong to Him, which means that everything we have — our lives, health, bodies, time, strength, minds, and abilities — must be considered gifts from God. We cannot waste our lives, talents, or money; we cannot take God's gifts and use them in selfish or evil ways. One passage says, Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

If we begin to think this way, and realize that everything we have has been entrusted to us by God, our lives will be turned right side up. In the passage above, Jesus is talking specifically about money. He says we can prepare eternal dwellings for ourselves by the right use of money. When we give so that people can be saved, healed, and set free from the devil's power — we’re laying up treasures in heaven. When we’re faithful in tithes and offerings, God will see this and bless us. God's people have always paid tithes (the first 10%) to show their gratefulness and respect for God. Jesus commanded the Church to spread the Gospel throughout the world, but this is only possible when members of the Church learn to give.

This passage also reveals a simple but profound truth: If we want to be born of God and baptized in the Holy Spirit, or to be filled with more of God’s Spirit, we need to be faithful in the small things (offerings, tithes) as proof to God that we will also be faithful in the big things (the new birth, the Holy Spirit). So at its very root, giving money to God by faith is a spiritual act that opens up a new world for those who give. It’s much more than helping to pay the light bill or mortgage of the church.

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Remember to keep praying for God's vision, and come to church as much as you can from now until the 19th.