30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 16 1-13 God's Regents 11 It is all His and not ours at all
📖 Luke 16:1-13
30Mar2020 - *It is all His and not ours at all* - _Luke 16:1-13_ - Bible reading: _I Chronicles 29:14-16_
_Luke 16:12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?_
The love of money has severe consequences, yet God places money and material things into our hands to test us for our faithfulness in being His regents over His creation. He is preparing us for His eternal kingdom, where we will also reign with Him. We are to hold money and other material resources in responsible but open hands. Being faithful with unrighteous mammon is the test that all of us will need to pass in life so that we will grow and cultivate true riches, which is our faith in God. The ones whom He chooses and uses for His purposes are those who have held unrighteous mammon with responsible and open hands
The money and the material resources that God has given us are not ours to possess and say, “these are mine”. They were not ours at all, from the very beginning. All the material things that we have, belong to God. We are to be God’s regents over all that is God’s
Very often we speak as though the money that we have is ours and it is for us to give to the work of His kingdom. Richard Foster corrects our perspective. *_"The question is not how much of my money should I give for God's purposes but of how much of God's money should I spend on my needs” - Richard Foster_*
King David shares this experience of how all the people saw all that they had as God’s. _I Chronicles 29:14-16 But who am I, and who are my people, That we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, And *of Your own we have given You*. (15) For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our fathers; Our days on earth are as a shadow, And without hope. (16) "O LORD our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy name is *from Your hand, and is all Your own*._
This perspective will radically alter the fund-raising efforts for Kingdom work. If every Christian will see all that he or she has as not theirs but God’s and needs to be handled that way, we will not lack finances for the work of His kingdom.
To alter our perspective to His money that God has placed in our hands, *we must intentionally change our vocabulary*. It should always be God's money, which He has placed in our hands. When we change our conversation, it will compel us to think differently about money.
Job’s life is an excellent example. Job had lost everything. Finally, his children too were taken from him. Look at Job’s response. _Job 1:21-22 And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD." (22) In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong._
Will we be willing to change our perspective to money? All of it is God’s and it was never and never will be ours.
*Thought to ponder*
```The freedom and joy of perceiving all our money as God’s has to be experienced to appreciate the truth.```