If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? Luke 16:11
Last Sunday evening we were engaged in conversation about money, wealth and the believers handling of such.
Coming away from that evening I asked myself, ‘how does wealth (whatever form or amount) affect the gospel and spiritual growth in our lives and the life of the church?” The reason I asked this question was, I honestly believe most of us see our ‘wealth’ as something that is private and separate from anything spiritual. We value our money, property, stocks, shares and investments as ours! This is what we have accumulated through sheer hard work and diligence. The amount we have does not seem to make any difference, as it’s often when there is only a little, we tend to claim our wealth more tenaciously. When there is a whole lot more at our disposal, wealth can be or treated with indifference or even carelessly. Whatever the case, I would suggest that wealth is a spiritual issue in the life of the believer.
The problem, as was highlighted at Community Spirit, is we fail in seeing and acting on the truth that we are ‘stewards” of our wealth - we do not own it!
It is not given to us, to purely satisfy our wants and wishes. It belongs to the Lord and he has called us to be faithful stewards of such. Therefore our wealth is a spiritual matter as the text above cites. I really like how Dennis Rainey puts this in his book ‘Preparing for Marriage’ “God owns it all and [you] are stewards of His resources... Because you are stewards of the resources God has entrusted to you, every financial decision you make is actually a spiritual decision. For many, that's a revolutionary concept. How you manage your finances is a pretty good barometer for the condition of your spiritual life.”