Begin with 2 minutes of silence and stillness before God.

How am I managing my earthly wealth? How am I spending my time? What am I doing with my talent? Where am I placing my treasures?

We all want to make the most of what we have, but I believe we are where God wants us when we place our motives and intentions in the hands of God. From there He will take us, show us our unique design, and direct us to our purpose - the amazing purpose of helping those around us to come to know, love, and follow Jesus.
As Jesus ascended into Heaven, He command His disciples to go out into all the world making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That command is as simple and clear as when Jesus stated the greatest commandment:  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Yet both statements from Jesus are so complex.

I can attest I fall short all the time and depend heavily on the grace and forgiveness of Jesus when it comes to me taking my life into my own hands and doing with it what I want before ever going to Him. God has given me so much from a faith-filled family, a great living situation, an awesome job filled with opportunity, and tons of positive life experiences. For all of it, I’m very thankful. Though like the rich man, I can look the other way when a need presents itself, I can justify not having enough time, and I can simply become so self-centered that I lose sight of the purpose God has placed in front of me.

What Jesus was trying to get across to the Pharisees in this passage is what He is also trying to get across to us. As Americans, rich or poor, we still live in the wealthiest country in the world. I know times are tough, but even with all we are currently experiencing, we still have it pretty good compared to other places in the world. In Luke 16:14, the Pharisees who loved money heard and sneered at Jesus. What Jesus then said was so profound: “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.” Whoa!

What I hear Jesus telling all of us in this chapter is, “Stop living for this world, a world that will not last, and live for heaven with Jesus, which will last forever! He is challenging us to live out the greatest commandment by loving His Father with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves. When we love, we can fulfill the commandment that He placed in front of us which is to share more about Him with those around us so that they may come to know, love, and follow HIM!

Reflection:

• How have you spent your time, talent, and resources over the past week? When you read the Greatest Command, where do you feel God asking you to grow? Loving Him, loving others, or loving yourself?
• Celebrate the work God has allowed you to be a part of. How do you feel led to serve in the future? Share this with a friend and ask them to pray with you as you begin to obey that call.
• Venture Church provides a great resource, the 7 Marks Assessment. It will help you see the areas you can grow. It can be found in the Venture Church App. The assessment only takes a few minutes, and each of the 7 Marks has a video and resources that will help you understand it and apply it to your life.
• Prayer: Father, thank you for this chapter! Thank you for the challenge of taking a self-inventory and seeing where we are regarding our devotion to loving and living for you. Father, help us correct the course and go in the direction you are leading us if we have gone astray. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you for your love. Help us to show and share your love with everyone you place in our path.

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Family Application: Luke 16

By: Kelly Lambert

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Luke 16:13

It's never too early to talk about money. It's important to talk to our kids about the value of money and where money comes from. Kids need to know that money helps provide for our needs and wants. Most importantly, they need to understand money is never more important than God. God should be our #1 priority. God is our Father, and we are His children, and He will always give us exactly what we need. When we forget that, we get out of balance in a lot of areas, specifically money.
It’s easy to think money can give us popularity, peace, and security. That couldn’t be further from the truth, because money has a limit. With God, there is no limit! When we keep God #1, we begin to see money for what it is - a resource. We can use it not only to provide for our needs, but when we learn that someone needs help, we can use money to help.

Money is just one way to be generous. The other two areas are our time and talents. When we begin seeing that all we have is from God, we can then begin to see our time and talents as a way to help people and work for God. How awesome it is that the God of the Universe wants us to help others come to know, love, and follow HIM!

• Spend time this week talking about God first and everything else second. Talk to your family about when we make God first in our lives, He helps us manage our time, talents, and treasures.
• Prayer: Lord, thank You for all that You have done. We want to be generous with everything you have given us – our time, talents, and money. Help us to make You first in our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.