The idea of biblical stewardship is expansive. It covers any and every area of life from finances, relationships, time and career - basically everything God has entrusted to us.
Sounds challenging?! Well, it is. But God calls us to be good stewards not because He wants to burden us but because our life literally depends on it. How you manage your resources will heavily determine the quality of your whole life.
When we steward our God-given resources with the right attitude and right values as laid down in the Bible, we set ourselves up for lasting earthly success. When we refuse to build the disciplines and invest in biblical stewardship, we will not be able to maximise the resources God entrusts to us.
Do you want to be a good steward of the resources you have been blessed with? Anyone can have the desire to be a good steward, but what it actually takes to be one are Spirit-empowered decisions made possible by having Christ-centered principles deep down on the inside of us. Here are three of those principles:
Stewardship starts with a gift
Stewardship starts with ownership. The resources we have are undoubtedly ours- the time, money, relationships and possessions- but these things that we now own we never earned. In fact, all the things we have have come as a gift based not on our worthiness but on God's faithfulness.
1 Peter 4:10 (emphasis added) says this: "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." It starts first with us "receiving a gift" based on God's varied grace. The value of a gift is heavily determined by who it comes from. The closer the gift-giver is to us, the more valued the gift. Our resources are a gift that come from our Heavenly Father who loves us dearly, and the value of the gift follows accordingly.
Stewardship will cost you
Here's the reality: stewardship is not easy. It will cost you time, money and effort to learn how to manage time, money and effort well. Luke 14:28 says,"For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?"
When we fail to impute value into a character of right stewardship will result to a wrong perception of it. Are you willing to pay the price to be a good steward- to regularly pay the price, take the time, sacrifice budgets and say no to instant gratification to grow in the way we handle our resources?
Stewardship is a lifestyle
When setting qualifications for leaders, Paul said in Titus 1:7 "For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain." A steward is called into a lifestyle, not just into a philosophy. Knowledge of God's ways will be of little to no use unless it is applied.
As James 1:22 encourages us, we are to be both hearers and doers of the word, asking God not just for revelation but the spirit-empowered capability to live out His revelation.
