To Whom Much Is Given....

I believe that God wants to use all of his children to accomplish His will and purpose on the earth. So you say, “Tell me something new.” Let me explain. God’s blessings to us are not just for our benefit. While He has promised to take care of all of His children and meet their needs, it is obvious that some are being blessed with more than others. If I understand the “law” of blessings, the more we are blessed with, the more we are responsible for those blessings and how we use them. While stewardship applies to more than just dollars and cents, it seems easier to see its application when we talk about money. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am reading, “Life On The Vine”, by Philip Denneson. Here is a quote that addresses the question, “Why does God bless the “way” He does. “If all God cared about, for example, was that people were fed, then presumably God might have chosen to distribute resources more equitably. But God also cares deeply about the way people get fed. To see why this might be the case, entertain the following thought-experiment. Imagine that you are going away for the weekend and you need to provide for your five children in your absence. You could, if all you cared about was that they were provided for, give each of them a large box of breakfast cereal and instruct each to take care of him or herself in your absence. But you could also make one of the children the steward of the cereal. With instructions to make sure that all were provided for, knowing that this would require the children to learn to interact with each other in ways that would be unnecessary in the fend-for-yourself strategy.” “What if God has entrusted to some of us much more than we need, not as a sign of God’s favor or as a “blessing” to be hoarded, but as a call to reach out to those in need that they might be provided for by the One who loves them most? It may be that too many of us have taken the large box of cereal, written a check for 10 percent of its volume to the church and then gone off to enjoy one heck of a big breakfast. Surely this is not stewardship.” What was it that Jesus said? “To whom much is given, much is required”? I think that is what He said—right?