Who do you trust with your personal finances? Do you skip haphazardly through life without giving a thought to your finances? Chances are you do not.
Whether you have a lot of income, or just a little, it is likely that you take measures to insure that you are managing your finances to the best of your ability. Things like balancing your checkbook, paying bills, trying to be wise when making purchases, utilizing a portfolio manager for your investments, and seeing a tax preparer are all important aspects of managing your finances wisely.
Have you ever considered that as a Christian, God has selected you to manage or oversee assets that really belong to Him? That is right—God has entrusted you with time, talents, and treasure to use in His work. What a responsibility! That Bible calls this being a steward.
"Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful."—1 Corinthians 4:2
So if you want to be a wise asset manager, how should you approach the job?
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."—1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Jesus paid the price of sin for us with His sacrifice on Calvary. Sometimes we tend to forget that fact and act as if all of this belongs to us.
With respect to our time, the Bible says, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." (Psalm 90:12).
If we had to purchase every minute of time, would it make a difference in how we spent it? With respect to our talents, we are to use them for the Lord's work. The Bible says, "...doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men" (Ephesians 6:6-7).
With respect to our finances, the Old Testament law gives us the example of the tithe, or 10% of our income. The Bible says, "And all the tithe of the land...is the LORD'S" (Leviticus 27:30).
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse..."—Malachi 3:10
The New Testament urges us to give our of love and grace, and not strictly by the law. The Bible says, "Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also." (2 Corinthians 8:7).
Because we live in God's love and by His grace today, our love for Christ should compel us to give more abundantly than the law would require. In living with this kind of trust and obedience, we will experience God's care and provision in a very special way. God is always good to those who trust Him by faith.
As a manager of God's assets, we can rest assured that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and that He longs to bless us in order that we may glorify Him!
"But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."—2 Corinthians 9:6
"For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;"—2 Corinthians 9:12
