There’s a lightbulb out in one of our bathrooms. I keep meaning to change it. I’ve walked past it more times than I want to admit, and every time, I make a mental note to take care of it. If you asked me about it, I’d probably talk about it like it’s something I have a concrete plan to fix. I don’t. I just keep meaning to.
Most of us have something like that. A project around the house. A phone call we need to make. A conversation we’ve been putting off. And here’s what I’ve noticed about myself: sometimes having a vague plan makes me feel better about having made no progress at all. “I’m going to get to that” becomes a way of feeling responsible without ever actually doing anything.
I think a lot of us treat generosity the same way.
When Something Feels Off
Every one of us has seasons when something just feels off. Maybe it’s your marriage. Maybe it’s your job, or you feel like you’ve lost your edge as a leader. Maybe it’s your spiritual life, and God feels further away than He used to.
When something feels off, we tend to think the answer has to be something big. A new job. A big move. A dramatic breakthrough. Some major change that will finally get things back on track.
But it’s easy to look for the next big thing while overlooking the small things God has already asked us to do. And one of the clearest places that shows up is with our money.
Most of us assume that generosity will come later. When we make more, we’ll give more. When the debt is paid off, when the kids are older, when things finally settle down, then we’ll be the generous people we’ve always wanted to be. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: more money rarely translates to more generosity. If we aren’t generous with what we have now, having more usually just gives us more to hold onto.
That’s the myth of more.
A Strange Story About a Dishonest Manager
In Luke 16, Jesus tells one of the strangest stories in the Bible. A rich man finds out that his manager has been wasting his possessions, so he calls him in and says, “Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer” (Luke 16:2).
The manager panics. He’s not strong enough to dig ditches and he’s too ashamed to beg. So he comes up with a plan. Before he loses his job, he calls in each person who owes his master money. One owes nine hundred gallons of olive oil, and the manager tells him to write it down to four hundred fifty. Another owes a thousand bushels of wheat, and he tells him to make it eight hundred. He’s cutting deals so that when he’s out of work, people will welcome him into their homes.
Then comes the part that surprises everyone.
“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.”
Luke 16:8
Jesus isn’t praising the man’s dishonesty. He’s pointing out that this manager understood something many of us forget. Everything he was managing belonged to someone else, his time with it was limited, and a day was coming when he’d have to give an account. So he used what was in his hands, while it was still in his hands, with the future in mind.
That’s a picture of every one of us. Everything I have is temporary, but I’m a steward, and I’m accountable. My paycheck, my house, my time, my abilities. None of it is really mine. I’m managing it for Someone else, and one day I’ll give an account for how I used it.
Faithful With Little
Jesus goes on to explain what He means.
“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
This is where the myth of more falls apart. We tell ourselves that we’ll be faithful once we have enough. Jesus says faithfulness doesn’t start with enough. It starts with little. The way we handle what we have right now is the best predictor of how we’d handle more. More money doesn’t change our hearts. It reveals them.
Then Jesus says the line that ties it all together.
“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
That’s why generosity matters so much. My generosity reveals who I serve and what I believe about God. If I hold tightly to everything, it usually means I believe it’s up to me to secure my future. If I can open my hands, it’s often because I’ve learned to trust that God is the one who provides.
Jesus said it another way in Matthew 6:21: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our money doesn’t just follow our hearts. Very often, our hearts follow our money. Your growth in generosity reveals who or what you are actually serving.
Ordinary Obedience
I think one of the reasons this is so hard is that small acts of faithfulness don’t feel very impressive. It’s much more exciting to imagine what we would do if we won the lottery than to think about what we could do with this month’s paycheck.
But we don’t get to seek extraordinary outcomes from God while refusing ordinary obedience to God.
The good news is that we don’t give to earn God’s love. We give because of what He’s already given us. Paul put it this way: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus held nothing back for us. Generosity is simply how we start to look more like Him.
Putting This Into Practice
If you’ve been meaning to become more generous, here are three things I’d encourage you to do this week.
1Ask yourself how much you really trust God with your finances.
Be honest. Look at where your money went last month. Not to feel guilty, but to get a clear picture. Then ask: Does the way I’m using my money show that I trust God, or that I’m trying to secure everything on my own?
2Make a plan for your generosity before you have “more.”
Don’t wait for a raise, a bonus, or a better season. Decide what you’ll give from what you have now, and put it on the calendar or set it up to happen automatically. A specific plan, even a small one, beats a vague intention every time. Don’t let generosity become one more thing you keep meaning to do.
3Grow your generosity as your circumstances grow.
When your income goes up, it’s easy for your lifestyle to quietly rise right along with it. Decide now that when you receive more, your generosity will grow too. Every so often, take an honest look at where you are and ask whether your giving has kept pace with how God has provided.
None of these steps are dramatic. That’s the point. Maybe the next big thing God has for you isn’t big at all. Maybe it’s the small, faithful step you’ve been meaning to take.
So here’s where this leaves us, as a church and as individuals:
