In our culture, we are trained to think, “I worked hard for what I have, or I was rightfully given a certain item which makes it mine. I can do what I want with my resources!” But, one of the biggest and most humbling realizations I have made about stewardship as a Christian has been realizing that we truly don’t own anything we have; God owns it all. Allowing ourselves to conclude that “God owns it all” changes the perspective as we now are needing to wisely manage someone else’s resources. As we think through this concept, I would like to briefly review the parable in Matthew 25:14-30 in the Bible. 

A master entrusts bags of gold to three different servants. To the first, he gave five bags, to the second, he gave two bags, and to the third, he gave one bag. The amounts of gold given to each servant doesn’t necessarily matter, but instead what is done with the different bags of gold does matter. As the parable continues, it is described that the first two servants double the gold that was given to them. The master is very pleased and puts them in charge of many things because they were faithful with a few. The servant that was given one bag of gold did not follow the same pattern as the other two. He buried the bag of gold because he knew the master was a hard man and reaped where he did not sow. The focus of this story should be the overall understanding that the bags of gold were never the servants. The master entrusted the servants with the bags of gold simply to manage to bring glory to the master.

We can think of the things in this world just like that. Whatever we have in this world has been given to us by God Himself. Whether that is time, money, children, a job, different skills or talents, and even things that are given to us by others. Everything is given to us by God. We should have the mentality to grow and be fruitful with whatever God has given to us. We are not only called to be good stewards of what God has given to us, but we are to use what we have been given to bless others. If we are irresponsible with the items that we have been given, how do we expect God to trust us with more to manage? 

As we reflect on this concept, I would like to challenge each of you to pray through the following questions:

• What would it look like if the world had the mentality that we are just stewarding what we have been given now to bless others later?
• Have you asked yourself recently if you are acting as a good steward of God’s resources?
• What would that look like in your life to live with the perspective “God owns it all?”

You might ask, “how can I do this when I am barely able to comfortably live right now as the resources I have are minimal compared to others?” But no matter how much you have, there will always be someone else that has more than you. If you think about what you have been given and look at it with the viewpoint of how you can best use it to bring glory to God, you begin to find new ways to please God in the stewardship of what you have and the decisions you make. I will leave you with one final question, how are you best pleasing your Heavenly Father with whatever you have been given?