Stewardship Month

This month, Bro. Rick has been preaching about stewardship.

Usually, when you mention stewardship, most people think about money. We are supposed to be good stewards of our money (check out the story of the rich men and the poor widow in Luke 2:1-4). The most important thing for us to remember is that all of our money and material belongings are gifts from God. Take a look at your checkbook - based on where you spend your money, what are you committed to?

Managing our money is important, but being a good steward is so much more than numbers. I think the hardest thing for women (or at least for me) is managing our TIME. Every second of the day is a gift from God. It is our duty as Christians to make sure that we use our time in a way that would be pleasing to God.

Sometimes, that means taking a little extra time to DO something - whether it's spending a little more time on your daily Bible study, spending more time in prayer, volunteering to help with the Children's Church class or nursery, or even dropping a card in the mail or sending an email to a friend that needs a little encouragement.

At other times, it's about saying NO - God knows that we're not super heroes. He doesn't expect for us to be Wonder Woman. He gave each of us unique gifts and abilities so that we can ALL work TOGETHER to accomplish His divine plans. No one is expected to do it all alone. Women are multi-taskers. We want to fix things and we usually like to do things our own way. We tend to volunteer for tons of positions and put tons of pressure on ourselves when it isn't necessary. I like the way that Vicki Courtney put it in her book The Virtuous Woman: Shattering the Superwoman Myth* -

"There is nothing wrong with cultivating our God-given gifts and talents and using them to the best of our abilities. In fact, in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), God reminds us that we are to be good stewards with what we have been given. However, often this gets out of balance when worth is defined by our accomplishments...Even today I find myself sometimes reverting back to performance-based worth, but then I stop, take a deep breath, and remind myself that God loves me for who I am, not what I do. How about you? Is your worth based on who you are in Christ, or are you spinning a hundred different plates of good deeds to feel like you are worth something?...Ephesians 2:10 puts it into perspective: 'For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.' Our worth comes in knowing that we are his workmanship, and the 'good works' result as a by-product of that truth."

In other words, if you're stressing yourself out with all these jobs, titles, and good deeds to bring glory to yourself, STOP. If you truly want to bring glory to God through the work you do, continue on - but make sure that your work time doesn't cut into your personal time with God. If you're too busy working to take time to pray, read your Bible, and glorify God, then you need to say no to something. Even Jesus took time from His busy schedule to be alone with God - don't you think we need to do the same thing?

While our money and our time are gifts from God and we need to be good stewards of those things, the greatest gift we've ever received is the gift of salvation. I know what you're thinking...how can I be a steward of my salvation?

First, you have to accept the gift. God and Jesus were good stewards of our salvation from the beginning. They both knew that a sacrifice was required, and Jesus provided that sacrifice. After the sacrifice was given, our salvation was freely offered.

In the Old Testament, a sacrifice was required to "cover up" a man's sins. But sacrificing an animal didn't change a man's heart.

Now, the Perfect Sacrifice has been given and we are "covered" by the blood of Jesus Christ. But Jesus does more than cover our sins - He forgives our sins. His sacrifice DOES change hearts and lives like the Old Testament sacrifices never could.

After salvation comes sanctification. We must be good stewards of our daily lives - turn from sin, give up selfishness, and commit to carry our crosses and follow Christ.

*The Virtous Woman: Shattering the Superwoman Myth by Vicki Courtney, Broadman & Holman Publishers, Copyright 2004