The One Question That Changes Everything By E.G. Link

I like it when someone “cuts to the chase” giving me the bottom line of what they want to say without including all the details.  I am often guilty of helping people finish their sentences so they can more quickly get to the point.  I assume some of you might be like that, too. So, allow me to boil the quite massive subject of stewardship down to one simple yet incredibly profound and life-changing question.  The question may be simple to ask, yet it is anything but simple to answer.

Before I give you the question, let me highlight one irrefutable truth we need to acknowledge.  This one truth is that God owns everything, including you and me.

Just one of the many passages that confirm God’s ownership of everything is found in Job 41:11where God is forcefully questioning Job,

“Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.”

God owns us believers in a second way, as Paul points out in Titus 2:13-14,

“Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession….” 

Paul emphasizes that God is the owner, and we are the owner. So, when we prepare a balance sheet of all we own, the list should be very short. The page should be blank.

We own nothing, period. It is all His.

Accepting this foundational truth properly prepares us to ask the one question that changes everything. Unfortunately, it is not a question we can ask once, answer once, and then move on.  We must ask it routinely, daily, sometimes even hourly.  Have I adequately piqued your interest regarding this profound and life-changing stewardship question?

Here it is – simple to ask but difficult to answer.  “God, what do You want me to do with all that You entrusted me?”

We all seem more than willing to acknowledge that God owns everything, but we still seem to continue making all the decisions regarding what we do with what we have. The ultimate objective of our stewardship (management) of God’s property is to do with it what He (the Owner) wants us (the managers) to do with it. What we want to do with our stuff is frankly irrelevant.

Does this idea seem restrictive to you or does it set you free? 

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E. G. “Jay” Link is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, mentoring, and content ministry working with churches and nonprofit leaders to equip them with the biblical knowledge and training resources needed to serve all ages and all economic levels of believers to effectively live their lives as good and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them, except the Article Steward Ministries.