Stingy?

August 31

“Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. Likewise, he who had received two gained two more; but he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money,” Matthew 25:16-18.

If we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the assurance that we have been given “a measure of faith,” Romans 12:3. The scripture does not tell us that the quantity of faith each of us has been given is equal to that which has been given to another. No. We have been told only that each of has been given some amount of faith.

We know that faith is a spendable commodity in the Kingdom of Christ. We can claim healing for ourselves when we are afflicted with illness; thereby spending our faith on a desired outcome. We can spend our faith for the salvation of those we love, pouring it out before the Lord in supplication that they might see and receive His truth.

We also know that it is something that can be invested into the purposes of the Kingdom. We can contribute our faith on the efforts of missionaries, for example. Although we have not been called to go to far-flung corners of the earth or to the inner cities of our own countries to spread the good news of salvation in Christ, we can contribute to the efforts of those who have been called to do so.

So, whether we spend our faith in the behalf of those who are near to us, or whether we invest our faith in the ministries of those who are “afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call,” Acts 2:39, we have an allotment of faith to spend in the behalf of the Kingdom of Christ and His purposes.

What are we doing with our faith? How are we spending it? How are we investing it? Are we like the man who received one talent and hid it in the ground? Is it deep within us where no one knows we have it but ourselves? Or have we invested the measure of faith that we have in the things the Lord has led us to support?

Are we praying for the sick who are among us and trusting that the Lord will pour His healing balm of Gilead in and through them? Are we investing in the nurturing of the young in the truth that is eternal? Are we attuned to the cry of the lost who need to read the message of salvation in the “living epistle of our lives,” II Corinthians 3:2?

Let us not be stingy with the spiritual treasure that has been entrusted to us. Let us lend and spend it in the behalf of the purposes of the One who died to set us free and to give us an inheritance that is eternal.