Minister’s Corner: Stewardship

By: DR. BRIAN DORE’
Member of the Ville Platte
Ministerial Alliance

Behind the commandment of “Thou shalt not steal” (Exodus 20:15 KJV), lies the idea of stewardship, which crops up all the time in the Bible. Stewardship is one of those “Bible words” we don’t use very much outside the context of church, therefore, it can be somewhat difficult to define for people who haven’t grown up in the church.
The idea of stewardship is that everything comes from God. He is loaning it to us to use for a time. We are mere caretakers of all we have, even our lives. We are entrusted with them temporarily and instructed to use them wisely for God’s purposes. When we steal, we are circumventing God’s actions and purposes. If God has blessed you with something that I don’t have, it is certainly not right for me to take it away from you. This also means since all we have ultimately comes from God and will eventually go back to Him, it is silly to try and be stingy with it now.
Stewardship is a difficult concept to really live out in life. On the one hand, we have the right to own things. We can call them “ours.” On the other hand, it also calls for us to remember these things are not really “ours,” but God’s, and we need to act accordingly. Our property should not define us or become a “god” to us. If we hold too tightly to our things, then we will be unwilling to use them for God’s purposes. We can actually end up robbing from God. I don’t mean necessarily through not paying our tithes and offerings as referenced in Malachi 3:8, but in our failure to show compassion, mercy and our help to others. In this way we are robbing God for we are not utilizing what He has given to us to benefit others for His glory. We are stealing, and we may not be aware of it. Isn’t it time to stop?