Living the Luke 16:10 Life

Have you ever seen the movie about Scrooge, titled A Christmas Carol? What a miserable human being. I know a lot of Christians in America who are just like him. They have to have more, more, more. They’ve done nothing with what they already have, so why do they want more? It’s greed—the love of money.

Solomon wrote, “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep” (Eccles. 5:12). In other words, the more you have, the less sleep you get. The more you have, the more you have to worry about and keep track of, and the more intricately detailed your management mind has to be. Having more will not make you a better steward, and becoming a better steward does not begin when you finally have more.

Better stewardship begins right where you are now.

Too many people have a mindset where they’re constantly praying, “Lord, please give me more so I can give more.” But God will never give you more if you can’t handle what you already have, because what you already have is already enough. For example, Jesus commended the widow who gave her last two nickels, so we know we all have enough to give back to God (Mark 12:41–44).

If you say, “I have nothing,” you’d better give your nothing away while you still have the chance to give it. God, in turn, will give you something in return. Give God something to work with, and He will work with you. I’ll say it again: what you have is always enough to give. Look throughout the Bible for evidence—God loves to call the people who have little to nothing and use them to change the world. Maybe you’re next.

Here’s an example: in the Book of Exodus God came to this stuttering prophet of a man named Moses. It’s interesting to note that forty years earlier, Moses never stuttered and never missed a beat. The Bible says he was one of the most learned people in Egypt, and as a member of the royal court he had everything he could ask for. But God put him in the wilderness on the backside of the desert in a cave for forty years and taught him how to be a shepherd. You see, God didn’t need Egyptian education or great wealth to lead His people to the Promised Land. Through Moses we learn that God will beat Egypt out of you to put heaven in you.

To paraphrase, God told Moses, “I’m about to send you to Pharaoh.” And Moses said, “Who in the world am I that Pharaoh is going to listen to me when I say, ‘Let my people go, for the Lord has sent me?’ This man has ten thousand gods that he considers lord. He is not going to listen to me.” God responded, “Hey, Moses, what’s that in your hand?” Moses didn’t say he had a winning scratch-off lottery ticket, keys to a Porsche, or a check for a million bucks. You know what he said? “A stick.” And God said, “OK. That’s enough. Let’s go to Egypt and change the world.”

What you have is enough. Moses didn’t need anything but a stick for God to use him to whip Egypt, because it was never about the stick but the God who provided the stick. What you have right now is enough, no matter how small. I know you might be saying, “That’s fine in theory, but that just doesn’t make sense on paper.” You need to stop trying to put the principle of supernatural stewardship on a piece of natural notebook paper. It will never work. If you don’t get God’s perspective and take God out of the box, you will never get it—and you will never give.

Ready to embark on the road of generosity? Head over to MyCharismaShop.com and purchase your copy of Greg Locke’s The Generosity Journey.