God calls us to give Him everything: our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind. This is the challenge of discipleship — a life-long process of more fully placing our lives under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
The reason that God can demand such complete service from us is that He made us. Everything we have belongs to Him! This includes our intelligence, our physical ability, our artistic talent, our family, our finances, our government — anything we may typically think of as “ours.”
It takes courage to recognize that we are not the masters of ourselves and our possessions. Moreover, as Christians, we believe that because everything we have is a gift from God, we are required to give Him thanks. And, we express our thanks by using our gifts to further His kingdom on earth. This is the basis for our understanding of Stewardship.
We use the terms “time,” “talent,” and “treasure,” to differentiate between the various parts of our life that belong to God. “Time” is the duration of life that God has given us. “Talent” includes the special gifts or strengths God has nurtured in us. “Treasure” is what we have earned through our time and talent.
Even though we identify three “parts” of Stewardship, they’re still part of the same Gospel-based concept. And even when we focus on these parts separately, it shouldn’t signal that one is more important than the other. In fact, taking them one at a time helps us to better concentrate on that area in our lives.
Remember, stewardship is an attitude. Before we can become better stewards, we must have a reason in our minds to do so. Here are the basics of a stewardship attitude:
“God made everything!”
A true steward should have a childlike belief that God made all things. This is essential to understanding stewardship. Recognizing God as the Creator is one of the most basic, profound beliefs of Christianity.
“I am truly blessed!”
Truly acknowledging God’s goodness to us takes humility. Every great triumph and every little pleasure is a blessing from above, and every strong character trait we possess is a gift from God.
“I believe I am to use God’s gifts for His glory!”
What better way to thank God for his goodness than by using our personal gifts to glorify Him? We are not the owners of our time, talent, or treasure, but caretakers who are responsible for spreading God’s kingdom on earth.
