What is Stewardship? get_app
Everything we have, we use for a purpose. Maybe it’s to help ourselves or our family. Maybe it’s to achieve a goal or task at work or school. Or maybe it’s to help make the earth a prettier or better place. Whatever we do, we are using things to bring about an end we desire to see. This week we will look at learning to be good stewards of what we have in order to bring glory to God.
What is stewardship? It’s understanding how to properly use what God has entrusted to our care. That means there is a very important factor to understand first.
Read
- What belongs to the Lord?
(the earth and those who dwell in it) - What gives Him the right to claim He owns it all?
(He made it all) - What, then, belongs to us?
(nothing) - How does it make you feel that nothing truly belongs to you, but to God?
Given that nothing on earth truly belongs to us, Donald Whitney says it this way:
"That means we are managers or, to use the biblical word, stewards of the things God has given us. As a slave, Joseph was a steward when Potiphar placed him over his household. He owned nothing, for he was a slave. But he managed everything Potiphar owned on his behalf. The management of Potiphar’s resources included the use of them to meet his own needs, but Joseph’s main responsibility was to use them for Potiphar’s interests. And that’s what we are to do. God wants us to use and enjoy the things He has allowed us to have, but as stewards of them we’re to remember that they belong to Him and they are primarily to be used for His Kingdom."
Some of us have a lot to steward and some of us have less. None of it is ours to do with as we please, especially when you call yourself a follower of Christ. We’ll dive into more detail this week, but that means everything you see is God’s. The house you’re in, the trees outside, the water in the ground, the gold and silver in the dirt... all of it!
- Why do we then believe that we own our things?
(we are selfish, self-centered, sinful)
The first step we need to make is recognizing God owns it all! There is nothing that isn’t His to do with as He pleases, but He gives us the honor of what we have to be used by us for His glory. It may humble us a lot this week, but it sure will make us more grateful as well.
To start the week off, rate yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being “poor” and 10 being “great”) on how well you worship God and steward what He has given you. As we go through each part of what we should steward, reevaluate this for each part. Pray to desire to grow in being a good steward of what God has given you.
Close by listening to "Yours" and be reminded that everything is the Lord’s.