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How are we caring for what God has given us?
Webster's Dictionary: The individual’s responsibility to manage
his life and property with proper regard to the rights of others.
Holman Bible Dictionary: Utilizing and managing all
resources God provides for the glory of God and the betterment of
His creation.
When Jesus becomes our Lord, He becomes Lord of our time, talents,
finances, and everything we posses. We realize that we are not
our own, we are bought with a price. (1 Cor 6:19-20)
There will come a time when we will all have to give
an account for every careless word we
have spoken. (Mt 12:36 )
How are we being
good stewards with what God has entrusted to us?
How about our
bodies? (1 Cor 6:12-20) This seems to be a forgotten or,
at least, thought of as an unimportant part of stewardship. Have
you ever heard the saying “you are what you eat?” In other words,
if you eat fat greasy food you will become a fat greasy slob. This also
applies to what we feed our mind. What are we feeding our bodies
and minds? In 1 Cor 6:19-20 it says that the Holy Spirit lives
within us, was given by God and it was given at a price.
Therefore, whatever we eat, drink, read, speak, and act we are doing it
unto the Lord. In other words, we are forcing the Holy Spirit
within us to participate in doing what we are doing. We need to
remember that God has blessed us with His Spirit--it is only right to
be a good steward of this precious gift. Are you being a good
steward of the Spirit that lives within you?
We have a seemingly new found fad (not really, it’s
been around since the beginning of time, but it now has a label).
It is called extreme sports. Are we really supposed to play with
death like this? (Lk 4:12 ; 1 Cor 10:9) And are we as radical with our Christian
life?
How does reading
the Bible compare? Do you read it as much as you watch
television, go to movies, read books, or read newspapers? About
the same? A lot less? “Only when my life takes a turn for the
worse.” Is it: “I just can’t find the time” or, “I just
don’t see the need to read the Bible”? It is written that the
battle is in the mind, not against flesh and blood but against powers
and principalities. (Eph 6:10-18) If you do not control your mind
something or someone else will. (Ro 8:5-9;12:1-2)
What about your
time of prayer? (Mark 1:35) Do you take time each day to
return back to God a little bit of what He has given you. God is
our Father, He wants a relationship
with His children, just as we want
a relationship with our children. A hello, good-bye is not a
relationship. Our Father’s desire is to have quality time with
us, we desire quality time with our children and our earthly
father. So why do we not think that our Heavenly Father desires
to have quality time with us as well? It should be our desire to
enter into fellowship with our Father every day, not just talking, but
being still and listening. We need to be good stewards with the
privilege given us to be able to enter into the Holy of Holies before
our Father in fellowship.
How about
your worship time? (John 4:24) Worship to me was probably
the least understood part of my relationship with God. I can
remember leaving a worship service and saying, “I didn’t get a thing
out of it.” How selfish of me to think it was about me. We
need to understand that worship is not for us it is for the glory of
God. It is to give worship to God not to receive worship from
God. My wife and I have seen more healing
during worship than any
other part of a service. That is God’s gift back to us for truly
worshiping Him. But it should not be the reason we worship.
Worship is about being one on one with God, giving Him the praise,
glory, and honor He deserves. It is our act of stewardship to
learn how to worship--focus only on the Lord, not the worship team, the
band members, props or lighting. It’s about the worship of our
Lord and Savior, no one else. Worship is so much more than
singing. We can worship God throughout our day.
How is your mind?
(Eph 4:22-24) Col 2:18--Do you have an unspiritual mind? Ro
12:1-2--Are you renewing your mind? Are you reading, watching
television, going to movies, reading romance novels or watching soaps?
(2 Cor 10:4-5) These are just a few examples of things that can
bring us down instead of build us up. Are you able to take
captive every thought--if not, why not? Who controls your mind? (Eph
6:10-18) Could it be a negative
spirit, lying spirit, lustful spirit,
spirit of greed, a spirit of fear, anger, contentment, pride and the
list goes on and on? It is up to you to receive whichever
spirit--the Spirit of Christ or of the flesh.
Relationships--Are
we good stewards of the relationships that God has given us? As a
parent, our first and most important responsibility
to our children is
to teach them about Christ (Prov 22:6, Deut 6:7-9; Isa 38:19, Eph 6:4,
1 Ti 3:4) and raise them in the ways of the Lord. As parents, we
are to set the example for our children. An example of this is to
let your children see you having a consistent and on-going quiet
time--reading, praying and discussing what God has given and done for
you in your lives. As parents we are accountable directly to God
for how we care for the gifts He has entrusted us with. (Matt 18:1-6;
James 3:1) How are you caring for the gifts that God has blessed
you with?
Once the child knows the will of God in their
lives
all the rest falls into place. For example: Shall they go
to higher education, if so, where, and for what? This would be a
good time to seek the Lord’s guidance. God will provide for all
our needs according to His riches. (Phil 4:19) Are we really supposed
to try to attain the most prestigious and highest paying jobs? Of
course there is nothing wrong with that if God is in the center of it
all and God’s will is being done in that environment. But God’s
will should always come first and everything else falls into place
after that. Seek God first in all things. (Matt 6:33)
How about your spouse, are you being a good
steward
of that relationship? (Eph 5:21-33) Do you submit to one another
because you love Christ? Husbands, do you love your wife as
Christ loves the church? Remember Christ laid down His life for
the church. (Eph 5:25-26) Do you wash over her with words of
kindness? Wives, do you submit to your husband as you do to the
Lord? Do you truly respect your husband and honor him in all of
your words and deeds? (Eph 5:22-24) If God has blessed you with a
spouse, then honor God by being a good steward of that relationship.
What about the other relationships in our
lives? Do we appreciate them or take them for granted? Do
we recognize the relationships that God has given us verses the ones
that we’ve created? Do we hang onto the ones that feed our
selfish desires and let go of the ones that force us to grow?
Read Deut 13:6-10; Psalms 119:57-64 (key vs. 63); Prov 12:26; Prov
18:24; Prov 22:24-25; Jer 9:1-6; Luke 21:15-19; John 15:12-14; and
James 4:4. What kind of friends do you have, what kind of friend
are you? Are you being a good steward of the relationships you
have with people or are you being selfish and choosing friends that
feed your wants and desires (worldly appetites).
Money
is
one of the things we think of most when we think of stewardship.
Money is an important part of stewardship but as we’ve already seen it
goes much further than that. We are asked to honor the Lord with
our wealth, with the firstfruits of all our crops. (Prov 3:9)
This means we are to give to God before anything else: paying
bills, food, or entertainment. Often times we pay everything,
keep out enough money for play and household expenses, and God gets a
portion of what is left. This is not firstfruits--this is scraps
given to God. (Mt 6:33) We are to seek God first, not after we
take care of ourselves. We need to come to the understanding that
when we give to God first, everything else falls into place. (Prov
3:9-10; Mt 6:25-34) It is a promise that God will care for us and
He will. What about that tax return you may get back from giving
to a ministry or your church? Do you take it and put it right
back into the kingdom or do you take it and use it on what you want
to? We must understand that we are not to make a religious law
about our giving--God wants a cheerful giver. In otherwords, out
of the heart not out of obligation or guilt. (2 CO 9:6-7) God
asks for what we have, not for what we do not have. (2 CO 8:12)
When we read about the widow who gave two little coins worth less than
a penny, we see that she gave out of poverty. (Mark 12:41; Luke
21:4) This passage is not saying we need to give all we have, but
we should give according to what God has put in our heart. This
widow showed her heart for God by her gift. When we give we
should give in proportion to the way the Lord has blessed us (Deut
16:17), doing so privately, not making a display of what we have given.
(Mt 6:1-3) We are also asked to give freely. Because God
gave freely (His son) we, too, should also give freely (Mt 10:8) out of
our heart and out of the proportion that we have, regularly setting
aside (1Co 16:2) to give cheerfully. (2 CO 9:7)
Are you truly being a good steward of what God has
given you? Not just things or finances, but the Spirit that lives
within you? Are you truly living as God intends?
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