Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 

                                                                                               Luke 16:10

Dear Friends and Members of IBC,

In the ‘Word of the Week’ for this week, I would like to expand a little about what I shared on Sunday, and share from my own personal testimony with regard to being a trustworthy steward.

For many of us, learning to be a trustworthy steward of the money we possess does not come easily. This is particularly the case if we come from a background where we have had very little training; no-one has modelled to us how we should handle money. When I first met my wife in 2006, I was newly sober from alcoholism, which had impacted many areas of my life. She was understandably a little shocked to discover that I was in significant debt (from different loans), and had zero concept of how I might handle money. I had been used to spending whatever money that came into my possession in an immediate, impulsive fashion, with little foresight or planning. I had had years of no self-control in the area of drinking, and this translated into other areas of my life. You see, being a trustworthy steward requires self-discipline. We can’t expect to regularly pay our bills, save some money for our children, and give generously, if our salary is already gone within the first week of the month.

Learning self-discipline, learning how to put together a budget, learning to have a future, eternal perspective when it comes to handling money, takes time and intentionality. We can’t just expect it to happen without us purposefully deciding that we need to grow in this area. In my case, it took many years. And I would say I’m still learning, although having a German wife who had learnt how to organise and file things from an early age certainly helped. We might be tempted to think of money as not being very spiritual and so not worthy of our efforts to learn how to be trustworthy in this area. In which case, Jesus’ words that whoever can be trusted with a little (worldly wealth) can also be trusted with much (true, eternal, heavenly riches) should jolt us out of this misconception.  

If you struggle in this area, then I encourage you to seek out someone who has learnt how to have a generous, eternal perspective when it comes to dealing with money and who might guide you in this area. For a start, here are two practical pointers that might help. Firstly, ask yourself if you have any sense of priorities when it comes to allocating your money. I find the acronym GSPS (Give, Save, Pay, Spend) to be quite helpful. Secondly, if you have no idea where your money actually goes each month, consider making a handwritten, detailed account of it, writing down each day exactly what you do with your money. At the end of the month, you will have some idea of how much you need to budget for bills, food etc... and how much you might be able to give away. I hope this helps.

God bless you

James