On stewardship
By Randell Tiongson on August 15th, 2022
“Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service, you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already.”
— C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
In the parable of the talents, everything belongs to the master. The money that is given to the servants is not their own. The money they earn with the capital is not theirs to keep. The servants are only stewards of the master’s investment, and it is the quality of their stewardship that the master seeks to measure.
We should maximize the use of our talents not for our own selfish purposes, but to honor God who is our master. We know that we work in a fallen world. Because of the curse of sin, our work will be difficult. But we should feel satisfaction and joy from doing our best with what God has given us in the place where his providence puts us, seeking to succeed in order to honor him and serve others.
As 1 Peter 4:10-11 says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Unfortunately, far too many Christians go to work with the idea that their talents exist simply for them to make a lot of money so they can happily retire. Instead, God gave you talents to benefit others, not yourself. And God gave other people talents that benefit you.
Ultimately, Jesus Christ himself is the consummate example of this self-sacrificing model of stewardship. He gave his very life for the sake of the other.
By God’s grace, let us strive to be faithful stewards of all God has given us within the opportunities presented through his providence to glorify him, serve the common good, and further his kingdom.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33
This is such a great article written by my mentor, Sir Randell. It is true. I knew I have always believed this concept deep down in me ever since. It is only through this article though that I was able to find the exact word to embody that belief of mine — stewardship. As a volunteer teacher for the poor, one of the big reasons why I want to financially succeed in life is to be able to send poor children to school. Not family members but total strangers. In fact, I am happy that we have this thing called stewardship. Through it, we are able to give, and seeing in your mind the smile of someone to whom you give something should be enough motivation for us all to develop ourselves to our full potential and get wealthy and return to others the blessings that God has given us. With stewardship in mind, I pray that God make you — readers of this blog — as rich as the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!
thank you