Walking God’s Favor: Don’t worry about anything. Instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Philippians 4:6 NLT
The idea that we are only the stewards of the blessings God brings into our lives have given us a certain kind of living faith. We believe we can do what God wants us to do, we can have what God wants us to have and we can become what God wants us to be.
We were first introduced to stewardship principles by Elder Harold Lee. A young family with four children, Ardella was a stay-a-home mom while I was serving in the United States Navy at Rough & Ready Island in Stockton, California. Our life’s spiritual journey has never been the same.
God has placed in each of us more potential than we will ever develop and we must choose to develop or not to develop our God-given gifts. After learning and living stewardship principles for over 25 yeas we have discovered certain levels of stewardship in which we are living consciously or unconsciously each day of our life.
Level 1 Stewardship – The Life of Struggle
Level 2 Stewardship – The Life of Stability
Level 3 Stewardship – The Life of Surplus
Level 4 Stewardship – The Life of Sustainable Increase & Significance
Level 1 Stewardship is the life of struggle. The Level 1 Seward is trying to survive. To keep the lights on, food on the table and gas in the car. I remember as a young father, being so concerned about paying bills and meeting my family financial obligations, I could not think about my higher purpose. Something was missing.
If you are a Level 1 Steward you can become so overwhelmed trying to survive, you cannot hear God’s voice calling you. The Holy Spirit speaking to your heart is drowned out by your immediate basic needs in front of you.
The first lesson you must learn in Level 1 Stewardship is, God is the Creator Owner and you are only the manager, apprentice or steward. This spiritual truth must become the foundation of your life. You can easily become a millionaire and be a million miles away from God if you do not internalize this truth.
The second lesson you must learn in Level 1 Stewardship is to put your faith and trust in God. God will supply all you need according to His riches in glory. The wiser steward you become, the more God can trust you with, because He knows you can handle it. The Level 1 Steward walks by faith and not by sight.
Why is it when God blesses us with a good education, we worship the education? God blesses us with a successful business and we worship the business. God blesses us with talents and we worship the talent. Instead of worshiping the Gift Giver we worship the gifts. Level 1 Stewards learn to worship God as Creator Owner and giver of all gifts.
Prayer of Blessings: Thank you Creator God, for blessing us more abundantly.
Michael Vance is a senior account executive with Hundley Batts & Associates and the co-founder of stewardshipofwealth.com. Ardella Vance is a gifted educator and a Master Guide in the Pathfinders Club, a global organization empowered to teach life and leadership skills to young people. The Vance’s have been married well over 25 years and share their lives with four adult children and five grandchildren. They currently reside in Huntsville, Alabama and blog weekly from their financial workbook ” The Stewardship of Wealth“.
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