Understanding Financial StewardshipSample

Financial Stewardship

What is financial stewardship? Simply put, it’s the way you use your resources to provide for your needs and for the needs of God’s kingdom. 

It’s important to note that stewardship involves far more than your money because your resources involve far more than money and material goods. Among your resources are your talents, experiences, creative ideas, energy, time, spiritual gifts, and much more. Your resources encompass the total you. God desires to bless all of you and to be directly involved in every area of your life. And He wants all of you to be actively engaged in His plan for this world (Matt. 5:14-16).

Financial stewardship is something with which all people are involved, whether they know it or not. Every person is a steward of God’s gifts, including money and material goods, and He has a perfect plan for what you’re to do with your money and material wealth. He has a plan for blessing you with increase in money and material possessions and for you to increase your ability to bless others (1 Tim. 6:17-19). The key is discovering what that plan of God is for you.

You must remember that God doesn’t separate your business life from your spiritual life. From His perspective, the two are intricately connected. Why? Simply because you can’t be prosperous if you’re growing and bearing fruit in only one area of your life. Prosperity has to do with your entire life. In a very practical way, God’s just as concerned about your finances and your ability to meet your material needs as He is with your spiritual growth and development. 

Many people have been taught incorrectly to think of money as being “dirty.” They view finance and business as unspiritual matters, and certainly not anything that could ever be considered holy. They regard money and financial principles as subjects that should be outside the domain of the church.

Let me assure you, God doesn’t see money as filthy. Money itself is neutral in His eyes. It’s what we do with our money that counts before God. He desires for our financial lives to become sanctified, which means that we deal with our finances in purity, governed by right motives, and in ways that are wholly acceptable to God.