The Joys of Stewardship

The Joys of Stewardship

September 19, 2014 at 7:57am

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Paul urges us to become living sacrifices, dedicated to pleasing God. At first, the idea of using “sacrifice” and “joy” in the same sentence may seem contradictory. Can you please God and also please yourself? As the Christian grows in maturity and experience, he discovers more and more that denying self and making sacrifices in order to please God actually bring out the true self God intended him to be. He thought he had to give up joy in order to please a God he may have thought was distant and uncaring, or watchful and angry, waiting for a chance to knock him down. Now he learns that doing what pleases God gives him greater pleasure and joy than he has ever experienced before.

A life of stewardship becomes a continuous state of worship. What greater joy could there be? Stewardship also has the purpose (the one that pleases God the most) of bringing joy to others. That too becomes so much fun it no longer seems like a sacrifice at all. There is simply no earthly satisfaction greater than that of stewarding the resources God has given, seeing someone else grow because of it, and then watching that person spread new wings and fly in the use of her own gifts!