Week 3
Discipline: STEWARDSHIP
Word: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-21
“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.”
Malachi 3:10
Investment and investment strategy is a huge business in our culture. We weigh short term versus long term; low risk/low return versus high risk/high return; domestic versus international; stocks versus bonds; real estate versus securities; etc. As with so many things in our culture, when it comes to investment the temptation is to think too short term and too materialistically. We want what we want now and to be able to see it, touch it, spend it! Jesus recognized that long ago and regularly taught stewardship as a long term investment strategy for our lives to protect us from those temptations that can undermine our relationship with God. He taught stewardship as a practice of eternal or Kingdom investment.
Randy Alcorn wrote a little book entitled, “The Treasure Principle”. The “Treasure Principle” is “You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead” (it is based on Jesus’ words from Matthew 6:19-21). There is an eternal truth to this principle whether we are talking about the use of our money, time, talent, or energy. Practicing stewardship as a timeless value of discipleship is an act of investment in our future, or maybe I should say God’s future or our future with God. When we give generously and sacrificially to God, we are developing other critical virtues that enable a healthy and eternal relationship with God. The practice of stewardship develops faith as we learn to trust that God knows our needs and will meet them sufficiently (Matthew 6:25-35); it develops patience, waiting on God’s time in seeing the growth, fruit, or return on our investment; it develops humility as we recognize again and again that everything, even our lives belong to and are dependent on God; it develops a sense of hope, expectation, and heightened awareness of God is at work as we watch for how God honors his reciprocal agreement with us (see Malachi 3:10).
Finally, Jesus says that our hearts will follow our investment, therefore we have to be careful where we invest. That means that giving to God is an act of our will that will develop our heart instead of waiting for the development of our heart to direct our will. That is why we call stewardship a spiritual “discipline”. The old saying is that we can’t out give God, but we can’t learn that until we try it. God will always give back more than we give, but He will never mortgage our eternal future for our material present.
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