It’s like the wife who complained to her husband. She said, "I’m ashamed of the way we live. My mother pays our rent, my aunt buys our groceries, and my sister pays our utilities. I’m ashamed we can’t do better than that." The husband responded, "Well, you ought to be. You have two uncles that don’t send us a dime." Proverbs 28:19 says, "He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty."

A second cause of poor money management is our consumptive lifestyles. This is why the average couple spends $1600 more a year than they make, thanks to plastic. Proverbs 21:20 says, "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has."

A third cause of poor money management is having no financial plan. According to the Wall Street Journal, 70 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Thousands of dollars pass through our hands, but very few of us have a financial plan or goals. Proverbs 21:5 says, "Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty."

Would you like to turn it around and become better at money management? Here are three truths or beliefs that will change the way you look at money and your stuff. In fact, if you follow these three truths, you’ll have more money, not less. Jesus illustrated these three truths for us from a story He told about a wealthy man who left for a long trip.

Matthew 25:14–15 says, "He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

Obviously, this guy had a lot of wealth and gave it to three different people to manage. In Jesus’ day each 75-pound bag of silver was equal to a year’s wages. So roughly speaking in today’s value, one manager got $85,000, another got $34,000, and the last one got $17,000. Each manager was commissioned by the owner to invest his money wisely.

Here’s the first big truth from the story. Just like the owner, God gives everything. Everything we have has been given to us by God. (Life, breath, stuff, our 401k) It didn’t originate with us, and therefore we shouldn’t have the attitude of an owner but of a resource manager. We’re tenant farmers, not landowners, and our job is to make wise use of what’s been given to us by God.

Notice another thing about this story. The owner didn’t distribute his wealth equally. He decided who got what and how much. Now I know that doesn’t seem fair, but God isn’t fair in the way we define fair. Think about it.

None of us are truly and completely "self-made." We all have some advantages that other people don’t have. Some of us got better parents, better looks and a better education. Some of us got richer parents. Some of us got better communication skills. God’s distribution isn’t necessarily based on us working harder, thinking smarter or looking sharper.

In the story, Jesus tells us that God gives everything we have, but He doesn’t give equally. Whatever you have, there will be someone who has more than you and less than you. But we all have one thing in common. We got it all from God.

King David prays in 1 Chronicles 29:12, "Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength." All that we have is given by God and at His discretion.

Logically, if God gives us everything, then 2. God owns everything. When He gives it to us, He retains the ownership. King David acknowledges this fact to God in 1 Chronicles 29:11, "Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom." Say this, "God owns it all." Therefore, we’re only conduits or managers of all that God has entrusted to us. And when we think we own our stuff, God gets offended. There is nothing you and I have that God doesn’t own. Nothing!

For a number of years, I have been managing my mom’s finances. I don’t recommend this. Trying to balance checkbooks long distance is crazy, but I have learned a lot about ownership versus management. I don’t own my mom’s money and stuff. I don’t feel any sense of guilt over what she owns or how she spends her money. As the owner, she can do what she wants. But I do feel responsible to invest her money and assets wisely. And by my being more responsible and careful, her assets will grow and there will be for me to invest down the road.

Isn’t it true that we’re more responsible with someone else’s money than our own? Someone has defined management as "protecting and growing the owner’s assets with fierce intensity." It’s about squeezing as much as you can out of your owner’s dollar. Is it possible that if we were to recognize God’s ownership, we’d be better at investing, spending, and managing it for God?

We own nothing but are responsible to manage God’s stuff. We’re tenant farmers. We shouldn’t feel guilty that we may have more than others, but we should feel more responsible for investing wisely in what God has given us. We are to protect and grow God’s assets. It’s not, "how much do I have." It’s—"what am I doing with the assets God has loaned me?" The more responsible and wise we are, the more assets we will gain for God.

It’s easy to forget that God owns it all. Sometimes He has to remind us. In the story Jesus told, it was time for the owner to come back and claim what was his. He was going to find out quickly whether his people had assumed ownership or if they were wise and responsible managers. Matthew 25:19 says, "After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money."

Annually, I have to give an accounting to my mom for how well I have done. She’s not checking up on whether my investment goals were met, but whether hers were met. In the same way, as God’s resource managers, we are responsible because we’ll be held accountable by Him.

Those three managers in Jesus’ story managed the owner’s assets in three different ways. And all three got different returns on the owner’s investment. The two with the greatest returns on investment received additional perks from the owner. Matthew 25:29 says, "To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away."

The third truth from the story is based on the fact that sooner or later all three managers had to surrender the owner’s assets. In other words, God gets everything. At times He’s going to want His stuff back to reinvest in His Kingdom work. One way or the other, God gets what He wants. One person said, "There is not a square inch in the whole human domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign of all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’

Let me illustrate this. If you have any cash or coins with you, pull some out. Now put the money in your open palms. This should be the mental and spiritual posture with everything we have. With our hands open two things can happen. The first is that God can take it away and reinvest it with someone else. The second is that God can give us more.

Now clench your fists tight. That is the mental and spiritual posture that nearly every American lives by especially when you hear that the church is beginning a building program. A clinched fist says, "mine!" When you do this you’re telling God that you are the owner, not Him.

When this happens two things can occur. First, you may manipulate more money by other means but you won’t get anymore from God because He’s not involved in your life. Secondly, you’ll force God to rip some assets out of your hands that He wants back and that can hurt.

But as long as you are like this, with your hand open, your heart is an open door ready to receive and give freely. How many more hearts could we touch if we opened up our fists? How many more resources would God give us if we went through life with open hands and hearts?

I know one thing. God will smile and offer these words as the master did to two of his faithful managers in the story: Matthew 25:21, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!" God gives it. God owns it. God wants it back.

Someone who opened his palms to His heavenly father was Jesus. He had no earthly assets to offer God, but He gave His life to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Romans 5:6 says, "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners." And when you trust Christ as your Savior, your sins are forgiven and you’re made right with God. Friends, we are nothing (helpless/hopeless) without Jesus.