By Allen White
Here’s the
lesson: 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. Luke 16:9 (NLT)
This is an
unusual verse. Is Jesus instructing us to buy friends? Doesn’t He remember the
parable of the Prodigal Son? After the prodigal’s money ran out, all of his
friends left (Luke 15:11-32).
What does
money mean to God? Money is a tool. Money doesn’t meet our needs. God meets our
needs. God provides abilities, skills and opportunities, but He also blesses us
in ways that we certainly don’t expect or deserve. Money is not the provider.
Jesus is
instructing us to use our money to help other people. Rather than allowing
money to win over our trust and possess us, Jesus says we should use money to
help other people. One insight here: Jesus wants us to use our actual money in
the bank, not our credit cards. The Bible instructs us in many places about the
slavery of debt (Proverbs 22:7).
Generosity
is the antidote to selfishness. Blessing others by helping those in need or
celebrating someone we love puts our money on deposit in our “eternal home.”
When a person dies, someone typically asks, “How much did he leave behind?” The
reality is the deceased person left it all behind.
How can you
bless someone else in a tangible way today? Take a friend to lunch. Pay for the
lunch of the stranger behind you in the drive-thru. Buy a bag of groceries and
put it on the doorstep of someone who just lost their job. How can you convert
your money into eternal currency today?
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Galatians 419 Ministries with a Tax Deductible Donation through the Joy to the World Foundation:http://joytotheworldfoundation.org/operating-projects/149-galations-419-ministries/backing
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