What’s Mine is Yours Is His

Dec 4

We are kicking off a new series on the importance of stewardship in our lives called Give, Save, Spend. Stewardship is supervising or taking care of something, such as an organization or property.

As followers of Jesus, we understand that we have all been called to be good stewards. We recognize that all we have is God’s, and we should be wise in how we take care of what He has given us.

While sometimes this topic may seem like a study or conversation more suited for adults, there is no better time to begin exercising Godly principles of stewardship than in your youth.

In their book Faith For Exiles, David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock share research on young people who grew up in church and continued to grow in their faith into their 20s and 30s. Their goal was to discover what contributed to this spiritual resilience.

Matlock and Kinnaman classified those whose faith remained as "Resilient Disciples." One of their findings was that resilient disciples were 31% more likely to report having been given “tools for wisely managing their money” compared to those who did not continue their faith into adulthood.

Furthermore, 70% of those whose faith grew in their 20s and 30s said they were given “wisdom for how to live faithfully in a secular world,” compared to just 14% of ex-Christians.

Stewardship is a powerful principle for building our faith. In Matthew 6, Jesus takes time during the greatest sermon ever preached (GSEP) to talk about how we view our time.

Jesus challenges His listeners not to have anxiety about the future. While we recognize that time is short, we see even more clearly that we are not in control of time.

Jesus encourages us to trust God with our time and to use it to seek Him and build His kingdom above everything else.

So, how do we become good stewards of our time?

We recognize, “What’s yours is His.” Jesus is trying to get to the heart of the issue. He is really asking us, “Who do you believe is in control of your life?” Often, we stress about our schedules and our future because we are depending on ourselves to make the best of our lives. God created time. God created you for this time. We need to choose to trust God with our time.

James 4:14 reminds us that our time passes quickly. How are we spending our time, knowing that it is a finite resource? Psalm 90:12 is a prayer asking that we would “number our days.” We don’t have forever on this earth. How are we spending the time we have? Do we trust God with it?

We also need to recognize, “What’s mine is yours.”

Jesus continues in the GSEP: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you” (Matthew 6:33).

The focus of our time should be on honoring God and serving others. We should live our lives in a manner that intentionally honors God and is not self-centered.

Too often, we “work God into our schedules” or serve others “when we have time.” This isn’t seeking God’s kingdom first!

If we are too busy to pray, we are too busy! Do we spend our time in a manner that honors God? If we think of time as a resource, consider the investments you are making with it. Is there a good return? What are the “time wasters” in our lives that could be eliminated?