Welcome to this Come to Jesus Daily Devotional as we continue in our Luke, Exploring Who Jesus is series. Today, from Luke 16:10, we reflect on how we are not to be so focussed on doing the big things that we fail to be trustworthy in and with the little and so miss this vital law of Kingdom success.
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‘“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)
1. Be trustworthy with little
A ‘law’ for Kingdom success is being trustworthy with the little that God gives to us. Jesus speaks of, what I’m calling, ‘the law of the little’; If we are trustworthy and faithful in and with the small things, we can be trusted with bigger things. Firstly, I just want us to see how this is linked with the context of The Parable of the Shrewd manager. As I’ve said in a previous devotional, sometimes the worst be can be our best teachers and, from this wily and shrewd manager, we learn that he uses everything that he has in order to get what he wants. He has, literally, nothing but he uses every opportunity, relationship and skill in order to get his goal. Now, we are not to imitate his means and ends, but we are to imitate his use of small things to get the prize - for us, the goal is serving God for His glory.
2. We all have something important, even if little, to contribute
Too often, we can disqualify ourselves from God’s service because we have little. Jesus doesn’t let anyone off the hook! Jesus was poor financially let’s not forget! He uses the poor widow’s offering as an example to us that little things are often more valuable than big things! Each of us must throw off the lie that only the wealthy and highly influential can make a difference. We have all been given a measure of wealth and resources and we must be trustworthy with these things.
Are we being trustworthy to invest the small things? Do we put our little amount of money to use? Do we put our time, gifts, relationships, words… at God’s disposal? Are we shrewd and honest managers of God’s resources? We are not to be so focussed on doing the big things that we fail to be trustworthy in and with the little and so this vital law of Kingdom success.
Let’s pray together
“Father, I thank you that no-one is left out of being useful in your Kingdom. Forgive me when I’ve disqualified myself or others from contributing to your Kingdom work. Today, again, I give the little that I have into your service. Amen.”
Community Group Notes
This week is SIV week (Serve, Invest and InVite week) for us at CCP. Therefore, please try to spend a good amount of time reflecting and praying about this.
1. Notices
It might be good to begin with notices. Please share from this week’s Church News.
2. Icebreaker
How has God been speaking to you from His Word this week, and how has this helped you?
3. Worship together
Let’s begin our time together by lifting our eyes and hearts to worship our great God. Perhaps you have readings and songs that you would like to use together. Let’s be open to the gifts that the Spirit wants to give in order to encourage one another.
4. Study and pray together
This week is SIV week (Serve, Invest and InVite week) for us at CCP, and so our study will focus on this theme.
On Sunday our message from Luke 16:1-15 was entitled: ‘The Law of the Little’ - How using the little that God gives is a vital law of success.
Please read Luke Luke 16:1-15 and discuss:
Here, from the use of this Parable of the Shrewd Manager, we learn that sometimes the worst people can be our best teachers because sometimes the worst people are better and more ’shrewd’ at getting what they want than are ‘the children of light’ - Christians. If we want to help to bring our community to Jesus, what things do we learn from this manager in order to effectively do this?
Regarding, principally money, we are told to faithfully steward the, maybe little, that God gives to us (And thank you for your generous giving at the recent gift days!). In regard to ’SIV’, how can we make the most of the little things in order to help to bring people to Jesus?
We are told to be careful not to allow money to become our master. How will idolising money make us ineffective at sharing the gospel and distracted from Serving, Investing and Inviting?
SIV - Do we have any stories of how we have ‘Served, Invested, and inVited’ recently?
SIV - Spend some time together talking and praying about who and how you are seeking to bring your community to Jesus.
Let’s pray together: Pray for one another out of our study together and for anything else for which people would like prayer.
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