![]() ![]() We sat in that car and thanked God for entrusting it to us, all the while recognizing that it wasn’t really ours at all. He had heard Lee’s story before, and so we had the same mindset that day. I remember when my husband and I bought our first car. How easy it is for us to hoard our possessions in the name of “taking care of them.” How ungenerous I have been with things like my car, home, or my computer.Īfter that conversation with Lee, I began reframing my thinking and asking myself how I could use what I have to bless God’s people, and thus bless Him. This happened years ago, and I still think about his kindness. This is the Lord’s pick-up truck, and it is for His people whenever they may need it.” Once when I thanked him for letting us borrow his truck, he said, “Oh, it’s not my truck. I remember that he wasn’t stingy or overprotective of his car, or even annoyed with the time it took to help us. So we borrowed this truck from Lee a lot over the years. There were four kids in my family, and come college-time, it felt like someone was always moving in or out of a dorm. Lee would offer this truck to our family anytime someone was moving. ![]() Growing up, our neighbor Lee had a pick-up truck. ![]() Here are some personal ways that God has taught me more about what it means to be a steward. But I have learned that stewardship is about much more than our finances-but every aspect of our lives. When we hear of stewardship these days, it is usually connected to the idea of money. But this parable leads us to ask an important question: if everything we have is a gift, how can we use what we’ve been given to further the announcement of God’s kingdom? How can we value all He’s given us by making much of Him? We all know that no amount of good works can earn God’s approval (Ephesians 2:8-9). God’s pleasure is not based on how much we can produce or earn. He had been stingy and ungenerous he’d protected his resources instead of using them. But the third servant has only the original bag of gold to offer back. They’d used their time and resources well they had been good stewards of the gold given them. When the master returns, the first two show the master all that they earned during his absence. The first two men use what was given to them to make something more, while the third servant hides away his one bag of gold. Remember the parable of the bags of gold? Jesus tells his disciples a story in Matthew 25: Before a man goes away on a journey, he gives one servant five bags of gold, another two bags, and yet another servant just one bag. Knowing that all I have is a gift, I need to ask myself what I’m going to do with it. All my “possessions” aren’t really mine to begin with-they are on loan to me from a gracious God who gives us more than we could ever deserve.Ī second thing stewardship involves is action. The psalmist reminds us: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). The Bible tells us that this first involves a mindset-an understanding that everything we have has been given to us. Stewardship means to take care of something. What does Scripture have to say about this? Prevalent as a theme in Scripture, stewardship seems to be the resounding answer to that topic. And then I realized that I have the tendency to do the same, and that perhaps this desire to cling to and hold on to what we have, is innate in all of us. I find myself wondering where she picked up this need to stake her claim on her toys and possessions. “Mine!” seems to work its way into her limited vocabulary at a pretty regular rate. My daughter will turn two this summer, and she has a new favorite word. ![]()
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