Luke 15:13: “After a few days, the younger son gathered together all he had and left on a journey to a distant country, and there squandered his wealth with a wild lifestyle.”

And this is what the older brother will later refer to when talking to the father, after the son is welcomed back: “This son of yours… has devoured your assets with prostitutes” (Luke 15:30).

The focus of this passage, of course, is the power of repentance and the father’s love. But we also need to be aware that there is a possibility that we waste resources too, and just be aware of that. Are you aware of resources wasted?

Look at Jesus after multiplying bread and fish. He said, “Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing is wasted” (John 6:12). That is an amazing thing. People have been fed; the miracle has happened; but there was still an awareness of the economics of it, that things should not just go to waste. That thinking—that resources should not be wasted. Do you have that thinking? Do you think, “These are resources I have, and they should not be wasted”?

When Jesus told the parable of the sower, the sower had resources—the seed in his hand—and he wanted to sow. But you can see some went to waste (Luke 8:5–8). You are supposed to feel that from that parable: waste is not something you just ignore and say, “It is all well and good.” No, it is not all well and good.

In another parable—the wheat and the tares—the servants asked, “Should we go and pull up the weeds?” Jesus said, “No… lest while you gather up the weeds, you uproot the wheat with them” (Matthew 13:28–29). Even by mistake, not one good plant should be wasted.

Jesus said, “Of those whom You have given Me I have lost none, except the son of perdition” (John 17:12). In the divine scheme of things, God puts value on things. He does not want things to go to waste; He does not want things to be lost. You remember what is written: God does not want anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). That is the heart of God.

The “waste” I am talking about now is about resources wasted—money wasted, opportunities wasted—and how we need to guard against that, and adopt a frame of mind where we do not want resources to be wasted. That is part of the power of this picture. It is telling you: this person wasted these resources. Not to say, “It’s okay to waste resources,” but to say the power and love of God are greater than the younger brother’s errors. But that does not make those errors not errors. It does not make it okay to waste resources.

That is what I am trying to communicate. I am trying to impress on you that you need to pay attention so that resources are not wasted. You need to be able to maximize resources that come your way—not that you are stingy, but that you are aware of the tendency for things to be wasted, and you are guarding against that, taking steps against that, making moves in that direction.

Because “the one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much” (Luke 16:10). By adopting a frame of carefulness in the management of even what is little, it is the same frame of mind you will deploy when something is big. That is why you may look at a rich person and say, “Why is this rich person living like this, as if he is not rich? Why is he not wasteful like other rich people?” It is probably because there are manners, frames of handling things that the person developed when he had very little, that are now part of him. And just because the resources are now much does not mean “anything goes.”

The one who is faithful in little is also faithful in much. It is the same character that will be deployed in much. So have the character of someone who does not want things to go to waste, but wants to maximize resources.

God bless you. See you later.