An Affair of the Heart

First Church has adopted as its mission a stewardship-based statement: “We are called to make the best use of every resource entrusted to us by God in order to bring as many people as possible into a lasting life-changing relationship with God through Jesus Christ.” The mission acknowledges two very important things: resources are entrusted to us by God, resources are to be used to bring people into a relationship with God. As each of us is part of “people” we may assume the use of resources is to bring ourselves, as well as others, into the lasting life-changing relationship. We may also assume that the “life-changing relationship” is not a one-time thing, but a continual change as we progress on our way toward perfection (a goal we may not reach but for which we are encouraged to strive).

Stewardship is sometimes more of a challenge than we can meet on our own. That is one of the interesting challenges of stewardship. It often causes us to step so far out of our usual capabilities, that we realize we can only accomplish our goals with help from God. Is stewardship a means of accomplishing something, or is it a means of keeping us aware that we are in need of a higher power? When I would give of my resources, but I have barely enough to make ends meet, God tells me the parable of the poor widow who had so much less than the rich, but was recognized for giving so much more. If stewardship is my training ground to teach me that in the end, I need to reach out for some help to accomplish God’s goals for my life, the good news is that without fail, when I reach out for help to accomplish my duty as a steward, God will be there

Why make such a big deal out of this? Because Jesus taught us that it is important. He talked five times as much about money as about prayer. Until we have committed our finances to God, we have not fully committed ourselves. Our attitude towards money can either be a stumbling block in our faith journey or a means of growing in grace. Giving is a matter of the heart, not the wallet.