The word stewardship can conjure up all sorts of negative feelings in us if we look at it from the wrong perspective. We can see it as an anxiety inducing, piggy bank emptying, guilt trip. This way of looking at the subject is twisted. In the first place stewardship has less to do with money and has everything to do with discipleship. Stewardship is a responsibility to manage well what God has given to us, and God has given us more than just cash. We are to follow hard after Jesus with our whole life, not just our bank accounts.

In the second place our stewardship will follow our focus. If our focus is on the here-and-now then we will be skewed in our management responsibilities. You see, we will manage our time, our gifts, our love, our compassion, our money, our investments, etc. with an eye only on the temporal, not the eternal. The temporal is what can be taken from us, but the eternal is what will last. Paul write about how God "has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3). Too often we think of the "blessings" in terms of good health, more money, bigger homes and nicer cars, but this severely misses the point of God's blessings. His blessings are with an eternal perspective and He wants us to get our focus there, not here!

So, what are we doing with what God has given to us? Are we being faithful with our time? Our giftedness? Our love? Our compassion? Our money? And when we look at all of this are we looking at it in light of the heavenly and not the earthly? Let's start looking at it through different eyes.

Grace & Peace,

Scott