March 08 - Trusting God's Generosity

"If I did not spare my own son, but gave Him up for you, what in the world would make you think I will not graciously give you all things?"
- Romans 8:32, (paraphrased in the first person)

I have been asked to prepare a devotional on stewardship as part of our upcoming church building program. My first task was to get a handle on a clear definition of the word. I dusted off my Webster's II Collegiate Dictionary and tried to look up stewardship. To my amazement, I found that stewardship is not even in Webster's II Collegiate Dictionary. I found it surprising that a word I used so often, especially in church, was not in Webster's. After looking on the internet, I finally did locate stewardship in The American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition. It is defined as "the position of steward," and steward is defined as "one who manages another's property, finances, or other affairs."

Using the definition from the dictionary, I now realize I misunderstood the proper use of steward and/or stewardship. For example, the responsibility of a church officer is clearly that of a steward in managing another's property. However, by definition, the word steward does not seem to apply in the personal areas, like how I manage my personal time or finances…even though most of us would say it does. For example, have you ever heard, "you should be a good steward of your time". That's your time, not another's; by definition a steward manages another's property.

This is interesting but is getting too confusing, so rather than talk about stewardship, I am going to make a slight change in direction. For some reason, in the area of personal giving, and that is really what this devotional is about, the word stewardship leaves me a little cold. It communicates (to me anyway) a strong sense of responsibility to make wise decisions…which is exactly what I strive to do in business. However, I have found that my personal experience with giving is not all about those things. It is more about faith and faithfulness. It is more about believing God in the area of personal finances and giving. It is more about my responsibility to be obedient to the opportunities that God puts before me. For the record, those opportunities often require the opposite of what I would do in business; they are often neither wise nor prudent and are sometimes very risky.

God's Word says that there is a great benefit in believing what He says about giving and about giving generously. I believe giving is a door that opens up great blessings for the giver who gives freely and cheerfully (II Corinthians 9:7-8). To those who do give freely and cheerfully, He has promised great benefits. We will have an opportunity over the next months to see God's hand in our lives and in the lives of our families as we make important decisions concerning giving. Do we believe God, do we have faith, even the faith of a mustard seed to really believe that God will give it back in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38)?

He says - try me!

- Tom Newton