We are Stewards, Not Owners, of Life’s Resources – Part 2

Blog Series

Helpful Tips for Saving Yourself from Trouble

It is said that you cannot break the laws of God. You can only break yourself against them when you violate them. In this series we are looking at some of the simple and clear “laws of God” – that is to say, “biblical principles” – that we must follow if we do not want to bring very negative cause-effect consequences into our lives.

Last week, we introduced the subject of Christian stewardship by looking at our stewardship of time. This week, we continue by looking at the stewardship of talent and treasure.

Stewardship of talent:

Wanda said, “There are lots of things I can’t do, but I can bake a pie.”

And bake pies she did, and would take them to those who moved into the neighborhood. Then as she chatted with the new friends and got to know them, she would steer the conversation to the Lord, and would tell them about Jesus.

She didn’t have a lot of talent, but she used well what she was given.

Before we were even born, God planned good works that he wanted us to do. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Amazing!

We’re all a part of the spiritual body of Christ, and each of us matters. There are no insignificant people in the family of God. We are created to serve God. We have each been given gifts and abilities to use to serve Him, His people and His Kingdom. 1 Peter 4:10 says, “As each one has received a gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

We are managers of the gifts God has given to us. They may be great or small in our eyes, but they all matter to God. As 1 Corinthians 4:2 says, “It is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.” God has made an investment in us, and He desires a return on that investment.

It doesn’t matter what our talent is. It may be an artistic talent, an academic talent, a physical talent, an organizational talent, or practical talent. Whatever it is, we must ask the Lord how He wants us to use it for His glory.

Toward the end of His life, Jesus prayed, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given Me to do.” We can take rich joy and satisfaction in using our talents, whatever they are, to accomplish the work God has given us to do.

Stewardship of treasure:  Mark Twain was attending a meeting where a missionary had been invited to speak. Twain was deeply impressed. Later, he said:

“The preacher’s voice was beautiful. He told us about the sufferings of the natives, and he pleaded for help with such moving simplicity that I mentally doubled the fifty cents I had intended to put in the plate. He described the pitiful misery of those savages so vividly that the dollar I had in mind gradually rose to five. Then that preacher continued, and I felt that all the cash I had carried on me wouldn’t be insufficient, and I decided to write a large check. Then he went on and I abandoned the idea of the check. And he went on. And I got back to five dollars. And he went on, and I got back to four, two, one. And still he went on. And when the plate came around, I took ten cents out of it.”

That is not the perspective we are to have on our money. We are to view it as God’s, and to be willing to give of our finances to help advance the spread of the gospel, regardless of how long a preacher preaches.

Luke 12 teaches that we are to lay up treasures in heaven, not on earth, because where our treasure is, there will our hearts be.

One of the things God asks us to do is to give back to him a portion of what he has given us. Why would God make this request? The answer is that he does not need our money, but he wants our hearts. A primary way he has of testing our hearts is to ask us for money.

Haggai 2:8 tells us, “the silver is Mine and the gold is Mine.” Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

Obviously, we need money to put food in our stomachs, clothes on our backs and a roof over our heads. There are many other things that normal life requires us to spend money on. God doesn’t expect us to give all our money away. But we are to give as generously as we can, and still maintain our God-given responsibilities (2 Corinthians 8-9). Pray and ask God for guidance on what you should give and to be at peace with the amount.

Giving not only is required to serve the Lord. Giving generously keeps our heads clear and our hearts warm.

Conclusion

Each person has five primary areas of responsibility:  personal, family, church, work and society.

We are to direct our time, talents and treasures into these areas of responsibility according to scriptural principles and the leading of God. How this occurs will be different for each person, and this can be tricky. Sometimes, we feel like the ship that was carrying a cargo of yo-yos and got caught in a terrible storm. It sank twelve times!

When we try to keep everything afloat, we may sink twelve times. But we keep working at it, praying about it, and getting better at being good stewards in the areas of our responsibility.

Resources for further study:

A well-regarded resource on the stewardship of talent is the Clifton Strengths Finder, used by the Gallup polling organization: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/home.aspx

For a book version of this adapted for churches, click here.

An excellent resource on the stewardship of treasure is the book The Treasure Principle, by Randy Alcorn.

In case you’re new here

The entire “Helpful Tips for Saving Yourself from Trouble” series is in the archives, beginning with the first post on July 26, 2022. As the series continues, each succeeding post will be added to and available in the blog archives.

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