God Uses My Work to Develop My Character

In review of Luke 16:10-12 it says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much .…  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 NIV)

Bottom Line:

If you can be trusted and faithful with smaller matters, you will be faithful in the larger ones. If you are dishonest in small things will also be dishonest in the larger ones. If you are not trustworthy with handling worldly wealth, you cannot be trusted with true riches of heaven. If you are not faithful with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own.

What this means to me:

I must be trustworthy with and faithful with the small things in life. They are a true indication of how I will handle the larger ones. So if I become dishonest in the smaller things, I will do the same for larger ones. If I can’t handle worldly wealth, then I won’t be trusted with the truer riches of heaven. I must faithfully handle someone else’s property, so that I can be trusted with bigger things.

In the book of Genesis, God gave Joseph a vision of becoming a great leader, but for 40 years he spent his life as a slave, and much of that time he actually spent working in prison. That turned out to be the testing ground of Joseph’s character, and when the day came and the time was just right, God pulled him out of that setting and placed him where he always intended Joseph to be. The whole time, God was growing Joseph’s character.

What I’m learning is that God is far more concerned about who I am than what I do. He is much more interested in my character than he is in my career. However God will use my work and my workplace to develop my character. My workplace is a life course in character development.

God will use others to test my patience, and he could use a workplace or a situation that I might be unhappy in to develop and grow my character. He plants seeds of love, joy, peace, and patience in my heart, and then he fertilizes those seeds while I work.

There will likely be times when I think, “How come this is going on? Why is this such a tough place? Why are these people picking on me? Why can’t I be happier at my workplace?” In reality, I just asking the same question that Solomon asked in Ecclesiastes 1:3: “You spend your life working, laboring, and what do you have to show for it?” (GNT)

The answer to this is character. This life of mine is merely a preparation for eternity. In the end I won’t be taking my career with me to Heaven, but I will be taking my character. And while I’m here on Earth, God will be developing my character and testing my faithfulness. Will I be faithful to do the right thing, even when I don’t feel like doing the right thing? God is watching so that he can determine what kind of job he is going to give me in eternity.

Jesus said in Luke 16:10-12, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much .…  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?” (NIV)

Today, I will remember to be faithful in the little things of life, as they count greatly in the overall scheme of character development.