Joseph’s story shows us how effective management determines what resources will be available to a person. More than once, Joseph’s crisis was that he was reduced to nothing. Each time, he managed himself and his almost unmanageable circumstances so effectively that he was promoted anew.
Although it may take a long time to get there, the end result of good management is increased wealth, whether the riches are in the form of money or of things you cannot hold in your hand, such as happiness or gratification.
Jesus told an unusual story about management. Luke put it in his Gospel (see Luke 16). It is the parable about the smart manager
who happened to be dishonest but who really had the makeup of an excellent manager.
Jesus commended him because of what he did after he was fired. He was fired for wasting his master’s property and for lying about it. He was stunned for a minute when his master told him to leave, but the manager was a very shrewd man. He knew that he could not find another job easily. So without losing a minute, he went out and found his master’s debtors. He sat down with each of them, and he renegotiated the amount of money that was out-standing on their bills. This ingratiated him to these debtors, who were rich people, and it probably guaranteed him future employ-ment with one of them.
I sincerely doubt that his old master would have rehired him because those new deals would have made the old master lose even more money, but Jesus says that the master commended his former manager: “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light” (Luke 16:8). Jesus went on to make a very important point:
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. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
(Luke 16:10-12)
God will not hand you a paycheck just for getting saved. He will only give you an income because you can manage it. He
will allow your management skills—which grow alongside your godly character and your obedience—to earn you favor. The more effective your management is, the more likely it is that you will be promoted to greater responsibility and also blessed with greater resources.
God will allow your management skills—
which grow alongside your godly character and your obedience—to earn you favor.
Remember the chickens, remember the paper clip, and remem-ber the shrewd manager in Jesus’ story. If you are dishonest with a little, you will be dishonest with much, so you are not to be trusted as a manager. If you mismanage little things, you will mis-manage big things. Then how will you get true riches?
You have to earn property rights. That is how it works. That is why most people start out their married life in a rented apart-ment or house. That is why most businesses and churches start out in rented facilities. You can move up after you have earned some more money, it is true, but you will be able to move up more quickly if you have earned respect for how you treated the property that you rented. God will reward you for managing your rented apartment well.
In most cities in the Western world, the people who end up renting all their lives are most often the same ones who disrespect the property owner by disregarding the upkeep of the place. Their child breaks a tile in the bathroom? Who cares? It’s just a rental property. The light bulb burns out? Demand a new one from the landlord. Don’t spend an extra dollar if you can find some way around it.
God is watching to see how well you manage what He has given you already before He will give you additional resources to manage. It will not matter to Him if you go to church three times a week and carry a Bible in every pocket. If you are not man-aging the situation He has set you in, He will not answer your earnest prayer for “more, more, more.” (Can you imagine asking God for a million dollars? A million dollars would be too much for 90 percent of us. We’d hop on the next plane, take a luxury vacation, buy some fancy car, etc., etc. Before long, we would be broke, worse off than before.)
Tithing is God’s management training program.
Last but not least, tithing is part of effective management.
Tithing is God’s management training program. God will watch how you manage resources by how you manage His tithe. Not that He needs the money. It is all His anyway. He is looking to see if you will be able to put aside that little 10 percent of His money.
Tithing requires accountability. It requires discipline. It requires honesty. It requires diligence, faithfulness, and trustworthiness.
All of these are aspects of good management as well.
Remember what God said to the people of Israel through the prophet Malachi? He said, “You people are robbing Me.” (See Mal-achi 3:8a.)
The people said, “How are we stealing from You?”
And He said, “In tithes and offerings” (Mal. 3:8b). He told them, “You are eating My tithe.” And He made them a deal: “If you will be faithful and start paying your tithes again, then I will
open the windows of Heaven, and I will pour out on you a bless-ing so great that you cannot contain it” (see Mal. 3:10).
That is the best example of what I mean when I say effective management determines your resources!