Dave's Diary

Prayer

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 16:5-8:

Lord, You alone are my portion;
You secure my future (both now and forever);
My boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places;
and I have a delightful inheritance from You.
Help me always to keep my eyes on You and trust You completely,
so that I may embrace Your guidance and instruction,
and live to the praise of Your glory.
Amen.

Reading

Luke 16:1-13

This is a parable we could easily misunderstand because, at first glance, Jesus appears to be commending some rather dishonest behaviour. But He really isn’t! He is simply telling a story to make a point about the way we ought to view money.

In the parable, the master begrudgingly admired the way the manager had the presence of mind to use all the earthly resources at his disposal to accomplish the specific goal he had in mind. In his case the goal was to make friends for himself so that he could set himself up to survive his pending unemployment. And that is exactly what he did. He used the resources to which he had access and he achieved his goal.

Now consider the goal that Jesus says He wants us to pursue with the resources at our disposal. Here’s how He put it in v.9:

 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.

Jesus wants us to use all the resources at our disposal to pursue eternal goals – the goals of His Kingdom. He wants us to use our finances in such a way as to please God and to cause others to enter the Kingdom of God. Those others will then join the Father in giving us a warm welcome into our eternal dwelling.

And He wants us to see money as a means to an eternal end, and not as an end in itself. He wants us not to see money as something to be loved and served, but as a very useful means to honour and serve and worship the God we love more than anyone or anything. We can possess great wealth and still be a disciple of Jesus, but only if we use that great wealth to serve the Kingdom of God and not to serve our own selfish longings and desires. Here’s how Jesus put it in v.13,

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.’

Will you choose to serve the Lord and His eternal Kingdom with the money and possessions at your disposal today? Jesus calls you to do so!

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• I will serve the Lord and His eternal Kingdom with the money and possessions at my disposal today

Holy Spirit, please infuse my heart with ever-increasing love for the Heavenly Father, and give me the necessary wisdom to be able to use everything at my disposal to bring Him pleasure and to extend his Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.