As much as I enjoyed posting to this blog, I have several blogs and could not maintain them all.
I have learned a lot in the past several years about stewardship and practically everything I have learned can be found in Randy Alcorn’s The Treasure Principle.
I highly recommend buying this book and reading and re-reading it. You will be blessed as you learn God’s principles so you might honor Him with the finances, possessions, time, and talents that He has given into your care.
“We have too much stuff!” I fumed as I stumbled past a pile of stuff in the garage.
This wasn’t the first time I had hit my limit on the things we had accumulated. I had been trying to “purge” the house for several years now. I felt like Eustace in C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace was unsuccessful in removing his dragon skin. Only Aslan could do it. For Eustace, the skin symbolized his sin that only Christ could remove. For me, the clinging dragon skin represents all the trivial possessions and projects that consume my time and energy. I have been pruning things out of my life and home with a goal to simplify my life, but it is now time to let Jesus dig deeper than I had been able to do on my own.
It was a revelation to me to learn recently that my struggles to downsize my possessions affect my availability to share Christ. The top four hindrances, in order, that keep Christian workers from sharing their faith are exactly in reverse order from Christians in general (The Top Four – Part One). They are:
1. Busyness
2. Not knowing nonbelievers
3. Lack of know-how
4. Fear
Busyness is definitely an issue for me. I am often too busy with possessions and projects to give people a little droplet of my time that can mean an ocean of eternity for them! I remember experiencing real freedom in this area during Hurricane Frances in 2004. We had evacuated to my son’s apartment, taking only the bare essentials with us. I finally had time that weekend! Without all the things to distract me, I had lots of time available for my family. Unfortunately, we returned home to an unwanted skylight and a puddle of brown water, with blobs of soggy pink insulation in the kitchen, so we were more-than-our-usual busy for a long time after that.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus explains that the seed sown among thorns symbolized “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things.” What was the result of sowing seed among thorns? The thorns choked the plant, “making it unfruitful.”
Some very good questions to ponder from this parable are:
• Am I caught up in the concerns of this life? And in desires for more things?
• Am I deceived by what I own? Is something taking the place of God in my life?
• Am I unfruitful because of what I own? Or because of how much I own?
• Am I willing to let Jesus help me “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” so I can more easily run the race God has given me? (See Hebrews 12: 1 – 3)
As Eustace explained after his experience with Aslan: “Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt . . .”
I want to be free to serve, not entangled by so many things. To go deeper may be painful in some respects, but I am ready. It’s not worth holding on to things if they are hindering me in my availability and usefulness.
P. S. If you would like encouragement in sharing your faith, you might be interested in my blog on Way-of-Life witnessing, The Sower.
A favorite passage of mine is 2 Corinthians 9: 6 – 15. By faith, the sower casts the seed away from him; seed that could make bread for his family today. He trusts God to provide the bread he needs and to multiply what he sows.
Notice in verse 10 that God multiplies the seed, not the bread. Bread represents the needs that God promises to supply; seed is for God to use to bless others and for the Harvest.
We are to sow generously and cheerfully, not reluctantly nor under compulsion, and also that blessing may come to someone. Our cheerful giving (verses 7 – 8 ) results in our having enough for ourselves AND abundance for donations. If we give by faith, He will multiply what we give (verse 9 – 11). Giving results in praise to God and prayers for the saints (verses 11 – 14). For instance, if I am passing God’s blessings along by investing in a ministry, I will want to be praying for that ministry and praising God for what He does through them.
Do we keep God’s blessings for ourselves, living beyond our needs instead of blessing others? Could those extra things that came my way, really be meant for someone else?
My desire is for God to open my eyes to see the seed (material goods and money) that should be blessing someone and to release my grip when I am holding on to something instead of trusting Him to meet my need. I need His grace to joyfully cast those things away from me, as a sower of His blessings in others’ lives.
“You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” ~ 2 Corinthians 9:11 – 12
I was reading in Light of Eternity by Randy Alcorn. He was discussing the parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16: 1 – 13. I was particularly impressed by his thought of “true riches.”
God reminds us repeatedly in His Word that He owns everything and we are stewards of what He gives us. It can be challenging to live that way and keep that mindset.
In this life, God desires for us to be faithful stewards of our lives: the time, the talents, treasures, opportunities,… that He has given us. If we are faithful with what is His, then He promises us “true riches” in eternity.
One meaning of true riches is that only in Heaven do I have ownership. For the first time, God will give me what I can call “my own.”
Also, true riches are only possible in Heaven where no one can be impoverished by my gain. No one is needy in eternity.
This also raises the thought for me this morning. Is someone missing out because I will not loosen my grip on something that isn’t really mine in the first place?
