Text- Matthew 6:24 – “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon”
I’ll love to start today’s teaching with John Wesley’s Quote, “Earn all you can, give all you can, save all you can”… Let me tell you a bit of John Wesley’s story. I hope it inspires you.
John Wesley knew what poverty felt like as a kid. His father, Samuel Wesley, was an Anglican priest, pastoring a poor parish in England. Despite his meager income, Samuel had 9 children, and had to cater for them all, in addition to himself and his wife.
It is therefore not surprising that Samuel Wesley was rarely out of debt. Story has it that there was even a time John Wesley witnessed his father being marched off to a debtors’ prison. Life must have been tough for him as a kid!
The surprising thing in the whole John Wesley story is that despite the hardships he saw his father go through as a preacher, he decided to follow his father’s footstep and went into ministry. Surely, he had no misconceptions whatsoever about the financial implications of that decision.
‘Fortune’ however smiled on him when he got a teaching job at Oxford University. His financial status changed drastically, as he started earning 30 pounds per annum, an amount too much for a single man to live on at that time.
Unfortunately, John Wesley spent a bulk of his income on tobacco, brandy, and playing cards. But an incident occurred that forever changed his perspectives on how to handle money One particular night, he wanted to offer assistance to a chambermaid who had nothing to cover herself on a very cold night, only to discover, when he reached into his pocket, that he didn’t have enough to meet her need. That was the day he had just bought some expensive pictures to adorn his room.
A professor of Christian thought and history documents that immediately this happened, the thought struck John Wesley that the Lord was not pleased with the way had spent his money.
In the documentary, Prof. White wrote that John Wesley asked himself, “Will thy master say, well done, good and faithful steward. Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money which might have screened this poor creature from cold”? He said to himself, “O justice! O mercy! Are not these pictures the blood of these poor maid?”
This was how John Wesley’s perspective on money changed, and that led to the quote I started with, “Earn all you can, give all you can, save all you can”.
Beloved, ask yourself, when God assesses how you spend your money, will he say “Well done good and faithful steward. Thou hast used thy money for so and so purpose”?
PRAYER
Lord, help me to be a faithful steward of the money you have blessed me with in Jesus Name.
Image Credit: shepherdofthelakes.wordpress.com