And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people.

Mathew 6:41

The first essential lesson to learn about money is to choose to be faithful in the little things. Decide to be faithful in the little things that you have right now. We see in Luke 16:10 the reason God wants us to be faithful in the little things. His heart is to provide us ever greater responsibilities, but our part is faithfulness with what we have right now. “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.” Luke 16:10 NLT

This reminds me of a profound quote, “Small things are small things, but faithfulness with a small thing is a big thing.” – Hudson Taylor. Being faithful in little includes knowing what you do have, being honest about what you have and not pretending it is more than it is, giving thanks and then asking God to bless what He has already entrusted you with. We see the disciples’ faithfulness in little in the Gospel accounts of the loaves and fishes. 

“Small things are small things, but faithfulness with a small thing is a big thing.”

Hudson Taylor

Jesus’ disciples were asked to feed a multitude of 5,000, but all the food they had was five small loaves and two fish. They had little. They had very little, yet they were faithful in little. The disciples brought what they had to Jesus and didn’t sugar coat the smallness of what they had. They didn’t pretend it was more than it really was, nor did they go into debt to acquire more, nor did they exaggerate the truth to try and impress people or Jesus with what they could do themselves. Then the disciples turned their “little bit” over to Jesus who gave thanks for it and asked God to bless it. Miraculously, that little bit was multiplied and became more than enough for the crowd. The point is this: let’s choose to live honest financial lives where we are honest about what we do have (and don’t have), then give thanks for what’s in our hand, and ask Jesus to bless it.