Shrewdness

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Luke 16:11 & 12
11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

Jesus is teaching the people and He tells them the story of the shrewd manager. This manager heard that he would loose his job because he was being dishonest in his managing, so he decided to make friends with the debtors and told them to make their debt to the master less. The master was actually pleased with the man for dealing with the debtors shrewdly. I had to look up this word and it says that shrewd means intelligent and making good judgments. I looked up other translations of this word and it said says prudent as well. Prudent is to be wise in handling practical matters; exercising good judgment or common sense. Then Jesus says that if we aren’t trustworthy in handling our worldly wealth, then God will not trust us with true riches. Stewardship comes to mind. Also, material blessing comes to mind.

Hanzo and I have been unexpectedly blessed financially this month. God has answered our prayer in abundance and yet, I sense that this is a test. Will we resort to our old ways and purchase things that we don’t need? Will we hoard up our wealth so that when the dry seasons come, we’ll have something to live off of comfortably? Or will we let it go to whatever God tells us to release it to? Although we aren’t rich, we surely feel a sense of confusion as to what to do with the excess funds. My initial instinct is to save. I like to put away so that once a large amount has accumulated, then I can spend it on something really nice or necessary. For example, I would love to put away some for a family car or van. Or even for the down payment on a house. I even feel like we should put a portion in a separate savings account for the baby’s college tuition. But there is a voice I’m hearing that says, “Give it to those in need.” Plus, there are so many people that I have been wanting to buy gifts and send graduation money to, etc. that I haven’t been able to because we have been poor. I have several gifts that need to be mailed to friends and there are other interns and couples struggling financially. Especially since this money was a blessing from a friend, not anything that we could have earned on our own, then I shouldn’t portion it out for selfish things. I would love to use it all to pay off my debt, but then again, there isn’t enough for that, and it would set us a bit out of the hole, but we would be “poor” again. The best thing I can do is pray that God would tell us exactly how to use that money and that we would be obedient in doing just that.

Heavenly Father, I know that You want to refine my heart and my character. I pray for Your forgiveness and for Your redeeming grace. Please guide us in exactly how we should use this money. I am willing to use it to bless others! I am willing to be shrewd in my stewardship of it. Please speak clearly to me and Hanzo and compel us to be obedient to You. In Jesus’ precious name I pray, Amen.