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
New International Version
Honesty seems like a lost art now and days. Many people today are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want. Why is this? Well, because the perspective has been shifted from earning everything to assuming we deserve everything. However, that’s not how God wants us to think or act.
If we can’t be honest with even the little things in life, how can we ever expect people to trust us with the bigger things in life?
When I was at church camp with my kids, one of my girls didn’t want to eat her sausage. I told her she at least had to eat one. I got up to put my plate on the dish tray and came back to her plate being free of sausage. She told me that she had eaten it, but I already suspected that her friend who had just then gotten up to clean off her plate, a plate with a tilting pancake on it, had hidden the meat. Eventually one of the other girls snitched on her to confirm my suspicions.
Sure, it was just a small piece of sausage, but this is what I told her, “…I know it’s sausage and you don’t see why this is important, but by beginning to lie about little things like this you are training yourself to lie about the bigger more important things in life.”
See, it doesn’t matter if it’s “just a candy bar” or “it’s just a couple dollars” or “it’s just one time.” A little bit of dishonesty leads to a whole lot of dishonesty. We lovingly refer to this as a slippery slope. Once you start going downhill, it’s very hard to stop yourself.
Maybe you’re struggling because you think that God is short-changing you. You want Him to use you in bigger ways, but He just isn’t. Well, maybe you need to re-examine your life. Why would God trust you with more responsibility if you aren’t even honest with the little bit you have?
This may have been hard for you to chew, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Take some time to pray and ask God to reveal the areas in your life that you haven’t been honest or true in. Don’t guard yourself but allow Him to truly reveal to you where you fall short. Then, allow Him to help you work through it. Find someone who you can trust, allow them to be your accountability partner. There is no time like the present to start turning yourself around and allowing God to use you in bigger ways. Honesty is the best policy.
