Are you ready for the next shocker about stewardship? Well, here goes:

Stewardship is about God trusting us.

Consider the parable about the talents (Matthew 25:14-30.) This parable demonstrates the radical, risk-taking master who dumps huge piles of wealth (each talent was worth about 15 years’ wages) into the hands of ordinary slaves and then watches to see what good they will do with it.

Sounds kind of crazy. But, that is exactly what God does to us! God (our master) dumps huge piles of wealth (time, abilities, resources, and mabe even money) into the laps of his slaves (us.) And, the whole expectation is that we look for ways to do God’s work with all of that abundance. My oh my, God must have a lot of fun watching us find ways to bless and care for others. God is truly smiling.

Stewardship becomes a way of life when we:

• Admit that everything belongs to God
• Understand that God’s desire is for us to use God’s sreation to do good things

When those two things happen, we are freed to:

• Enjoy what God created
• Help others enjoy what God created.
• Rely upon God’s abundance, grace and love instead of our own ability.

Stay tuned, future articles look like this:

• Stewardship Soundings – periodic articles that take a look at a specific tewardship concept
• Stewardshi Moments – weekly articles identifying stewardship in the assigned Gospel scriptures

Keep reading and keep praying that the Holy Spirit will enlighten and encourage you to understand what God wants you to know about stewardship.