Are You a Faithful Steward? Responsiblities of Biblical Financial Stewardship

There have been a number of times in which I’ve beat myself up over our finances.  I was frustrated over debt, a lack of savings and investing and just not being further along the Crown Money Map than what I felt like we should be.  I’ve also talked to a lot of people who are anxious about their finances or often feel this same frustration.  It’s good to be concerned.  At least at that point, you know you care about being a good personal money manager.  But, I don’t think God want us to beat ourselves up about our financial situation.  Rather, we should focus on our journey as faithful stewards.

In his book, Your Money Map, Howard Dayton reminds us of four key responsibilities of faithful steward: 

1.  Be faithful with what you have.

It doesn’t matter how much we have.  God has entrusted us to manage a certain amount.  Your amount may be different from your neighbor’s amount, but God has asked you to be wise with what you have. 

Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (1 Corinthians 4:2)

This is a tough one, but we have to learn to be content in our situation.  When we’re ready, God will trust us with more.

2.  Be faithful with 100%.

God desires us to be faithful with all the money he’s entrusted to us.  A lot of Christians feel like they should only focus on the giving part, but God has asked us to be faithful in a number of other areas that people tend to forget about.  Howard Dayton provides the following guidelines to be 100% responsible:

• Be completely honest.
• Train your children.
• Steadily invest.
• Avoid debt.
• Regularly save.
• Wisely spend.
• Generously give.
• Work hard.

That’s a lot to think about, but money is involved in every one of those areas listed.  We can’t compartmentalize money from other spiritual areas of our life and we certainly can’t compartmentalize giving as the sole area  in which we have a financial responsibility.

3.  Be faithful with little things.

If we are faithful with little things God may trust us with bigger things to manage.  If you think about it, how we manage just a few dollars often is an example of how we might manage $1000.  In other words, if you can’t hardly hang onto $10 without spending it, you’ll probably have the same tendency with the $1000.

Howard Dayton:  Think about it.  How do you know if a child is going to take good care of his first car?  Observe how he cared for his bicycle.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. (Luke 16:10)

4.  Be faithful with other people’s stuff.

I’m glad Howard Dayton pointed out this area of responsibility in his book.  Taking care of other people’s stuff is something we don’t often think about as being the responsibility of a financial steward, but it’s important.  I think this applies when we borrow something from our neighbor, perhaps stay elsewhere such as in a hotel and in the use of office supplies at work.  Even if we don’t own all these resources, God looks to us to be responsible in our use and care of them.

How are you fulfilling your responsibilities as a faithful steward?  

As I mentioned, God doesn’t want us to beat ourselves up about our financial situation.  I have to remind myself of that often.  All too often we focus on achieving the objectives (getting out of debt, maxing out our retirement contributions, building our emergency savings to a certain amount…), but we forget about adhering to our responsibilities as faithful stewards. 

Achieving true financial freedom (the final destination on the Crown Money Map) is a journey.  Certainly, some people will be entrusted with more than others at the end of their journey.  Some people will be in better financial situations than others.    But, shouldn’t we first make it a journey about faithful stewardship?  If you’re doing your best to fulfill these responsibilities, I believe you can find peace and comfort in that God will fulfill his responsibilities and provide for your needs.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

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