Confidence In Christ: A Devotional For Teen Girls

Stewardship

"Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others. Be good servants of God's various gifts of grace." 1 Peter 4:10

Stewardship is a concept that has been around for years. It's earliest origins trace all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when God placed humans as stewards over the land. Many churches have taught courses by people like Dave Ramsey and Larry Burkett and if you've been in church long enough, you've heard the "tithe talk".

However, is stewardship only limited to finances?

I used to see it that way. Admittedly, the past, when I've heard the word "stewardship" I've let out a bit of an internal exhale. As an extreme right-brain-creative-people-person, things that pertain money and numbers tend to make my brain feel like it's going to spill out of my ears. I have a lot of respect for people who are interested in finances (after all, without them, we'd all be in trouble) but for me personally, financial terms tend to sound a lot like gibberish.

But recently, God has helped me realize something: stewardship isn't just a financial word. It relates to every single thing in our lives. Even if we're young enough to not have much of an income, we can still be good stewards of our resources.

Our time? Stewardship.

Our relationships? Stewardship.

Our spiritual gifts? Stewardship.

Our dreams? Stewardship.

Stewardship, in short, is basically offering everything we have back to God as a gift. Psalm 24:1 says "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." If your best friend asks you to look after her dog while she's out of town, you're going to take good care of that dog; you'll feed him, take him outside, and make sure he doesn't escape. This is what God wants us to do with everything that He's entrusted us to.

Use our time well.

Invest in our relationships.

Share our talents for his glory.

Chase our dreams in a way that points back to God.

God calls each of us, from the wealthiest to the poorest, to be a steward.

We are each called to steward different things, just as Jesus teaches through his Parable of The Talents, but we all have gifts that God wants us to steward. Stewardship, in short, is a call to obedience and wisdom. A call to wisely let our blessings overflow in a way that blesses others. A call to live, love, and give to the fullest.

"So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship." Romans 12:1. ❤️

Discussion Question: How can we, in each of our unique places of life, steward our relationships, our dreams, our talents, and our time in a way that points back to the Creator of all of these things?