Jesus was a storyteller who spoke in parables to get His message across. Many of these parables were simple, but had truths that were hidden. When the disciples (followers of Christ, not just the twelve) wanted to get a deeper understanding, Jesus would explain the meaning of the parables.  What is interesting, is today as you and I read the Word of God, we may come across a parable that we don’t quite understand based on what we read.

In Luke, Jesus tells the story of a certain rich man who had a steward (business manager), who was in charge of the resources of his boss including all of his business affairs of selling and collecting payments for his boss. This steward was not doing his job. He was accused of wasting his boss’s resources. His boss calls him in for an accounting and so he can fire him.

The steward knows he’s going to get fired, and he says to himself, “What shall I do? My boss is going to fire me, I cannot dig and do manual work, and I am too embarrassed to beg.” He comes up with a plan to secure his future. He goes to all of his boss’s debtors and asks each one how much they owe. One said, “a hundred measures of wheat.” He tells him to take the bill and write eighty. Another says, “a hundred measures of oil.” He tells him to write fifty on the bill.

The plan was to discount all of the debtors’ bills so when he loses his job, the debtors will feel obligated to help him out. He did them a favor and saved them a lot of money, and now it would be their turn to do him a favor and provide for his livelihood.

Now, you would think that the boss would be very upset that the steward had discounted the bills. On the contrary, he actually  praised the dishonest (unjust) manager for acting shrewdly and prudently or wisely. Jesus goes on to say that the sons of this age are more wise or shrewd than the sons of light or those that serve God and do what is right. The unjust manager was thinking ahead and made a plan to secure his future.

Jesus was saying that this steward knew he was going to be fired for wasting his boss’s resources, but made friends with those that could help him in the future. He was smart. As followers of Jesus, we have resources as well. God has given us our lives, bodies, minds, gifts, talents, time, and the ability to work and earn money. We are stewards or managers of what God has given us. We have probably wasted some of those resources on our own selfish desires and needs without thinking of the future.

God wants us to be wise and use our talents, time, and treasure while we are on the earth, but also think about God’s kingdom and what we are doing to expand it. Use what God has given you and think about the future. Use wisdom to turn your negative situation around, and also  use your resources to help spread the gospel so that more people will be saved and they will be your friends forever.

Read the rest at: https://litwithprayer.substack.com/p/take-lessons-from-the-shrewd