*Scriptures taken from Biblegateway.com
Again, I feel the need to include a disclaimer. I know that I have no right to write the following words; I am as poor a steward as the worst of us. But let these words encourage us to work harder than ever before.
"The earth is the Lord's, and all of it's fullness." [Psalm 24:1] All the world belongs to our Father in heaven. Nothing is ours. That's a concept that is really hard to grasp, especially in our materialistic society. We constantly seek what we want to have, but nothing, absolutely nothing is ours. This requires further exploration. Whatever He gives to us, when we truly think about it, is just a loan. We cannot take it beyond the grave, as hard as the Pharaohs of Egypt may try. Neither our wealth, nor our friendships, nor our accolades, nor our achievements will continue on with us, though they may continue on in this world. We leave the world as we entered - naked.
This leaves us with two responses. First, we must learn to never take pride in what we have or what we have accomplished. I like to think of it this way. Either I was born with it, and thus had no part in its acquisition and have no right to feel proud, or I had to work to get it, and thus must realize that anyone else could have attained the same thing. Of what then do I have to be proud? There is no room for pride. In fact, pride has a habit of taking over everything, and it's distaste will cost us every relationship we have, the most important of which is our relationship with God. Pride makes ourselves the idol, and to attach our worth to our property is like building an altar to it.
What then ought to be our reaction? Are we to sell all we have and live as hermits? Certainly not! God has placed us in charge of various things because He wants to see those things taken care of. An example of bad stewardship can be seen by the Israelites, who had worked their lands to exhaustion. They were required by law to give the land a year of rest every seven years, with the promise that the sixth year's harvest would be plentiful enough to sustain them for two years. So they would see the evidence of the promise before they had to make the commitment to not work the land. But in their greed, they harvested for 490 straight years. Finally, during their 70 year exile, God gave the land the rest it was due, but at such a great price to the people of Israel. We should learn from their error.
That leaves us with the second response of seeing all that we own as God's gift to us. This includes everything from houses (or dorm rooms for you college girls) to cars to smaller items like books and glasses and cell phones. And, make no mistake, it definitely includes the earth and every element in it, of which we were first called into stewardship [Genesis 1:28]. That's right - going green has a Christian element to it. God wants to see how you maintain what He gives you, so that He can put you in charge of many when you deliver it back to Him, just as He did in the parable of the talents [Matthew 25:14-30]. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have those words we all long to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant"? We always assume this refers to how many works we can do for the Lord, but to think of how it relates to our stewardship of property is truly convicting. I know it is for me.
Let us make a commitment to be good stewards of God's blessings, realizing that we receive them by His mercy, and will give an account to Him one day.
God bless,
Alisha
