Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service, you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already.
– C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
If you have been in church the majority of your life, you have heard a partial meaning of stewardship during a stewardship campaign at the church. Honestly, growing up in the church, I only heard stewardship from the pulpit on those Sundays during a campaign. Maybe you have been taught differently. Stewardship is more than a financial campaign at the church or more than your Sunday tithes. It is so much more.
In Psalms 24, the Psalmist is declaring that everything in the world and everyone in the world is the Lord’s. Our very life is really not our own. When Jesus calls his disciples and teaches them about being his followers, a cost of their very lives is at hand. Jesus declares that we have to take up a cross daily to follow him. If our very lives, that we live, are to be given up to be his followers, then our lives are not ours, our land and houses are not ours, and our kids are not ours. Everything that we own has been given unto us because God loves his creation. God did not just give us financial blessings to give back to him. In a sense, everything we have is to be steward back to God.
At Central, we ask that you give not only of your tithes but also of your gifts and presence. Your very presence in worshiping God each Sunday is an action of stewardship to God. When you serve God in the various areas of the church to build his Kingdom, you are being stewards of yourself to God. I encourage you today in being a good steward of what God has given you. If God has given us everything that we have and we think about our lives as being his and not our own, then maybe we won’t hold so tightly to worldly possessions.
IronMaker’s Daily Challenge: Take a look at your current life. How are you being a steward of your time, gifts, presence, and financials? Is God asking you to give up your "life" (worldly things) in order to be a faithful steward in our community of Faith?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank you so much that you have created me in your image. Thank you for all the blessings in my life that you have given me. Help me to know how I am a steward of my life, and help me to know where I can give you more. I love you, Lord.
Rev. Kristina Crabtree
Minister of Spiritual Formation
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