The word “steward” is not common in our vocabulary today. Outside of church contexts, the word likely doesn’t come up in our day-to-day conversations. Yet the concept of stewardship gives us a foundational understanding of our relationship to God and our resources.
What is a steward?
The Bible often talks about how God is the source and owner of everything. Here are just a couple of examples:
“Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine” (Job 41:11 ESV).
“For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine” (Psalm 50:10–11 ESV).
But while the Lord has not transferred ownership of the world to us, God has given us a role to play. Genesis 1:26–30 describes how God entrusted humankind with a responsibility to care for and rule over the earth. So we are the managers—or stewards—of what ultimately belongs to the Lord.
Whose money is that?
We may only spend a few hours per week in a church building, reading Scripture, or praying, but we are still ambassadors of the Kingdom during the rest of the week. We seek to honor the Lord through every minute of every day because our whole lives belong to the Lord.
The same is true of our money. While we only give our tithes and offerings to the Lord, we still seek to honor Him with every dollar of our finances. Every time we open our wallets or swipe our cards, we are exercising our authority as God’s stewards to invest His resources.
The Lord isn’t like an angry taskmaster who wants to deprive us of spending money on things we enjoy. He doesn’t demand that we justify each latte or movie ticket. What He does care about, however, is our hearts. And our hearts will begin to change when we grasp the truth that everything belongs to the Lord. When we understand our role as stewards of what God has given us, our perspective changes from “How much of my money do I have to give You, Lord?” to “How could I use Your money on behalf of Your Kingdom?”
When we begin to see our resources as tools that God has entrusted us with for His glory, we truly begin to live the Christian life.
