Christian stewardship is not fund-raising. Fund-raising is donating out of what is ours. Stewardship is deploying all we have for Christ because it is his. He generously provides for our needs, plus more. But every dollar he puts in our hands is to serve him, because it belongs to him and not to us.
What would you call an investment broker who redirects his client’s money over to personal use? An embezzler. Even so, we are investment brokers for Christ, using the money he entrusts to us in order to advance his purposes. Can we neglect to give even as little as 10% toward his commitment to his church?
“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Can we doubt his care for us in the small things of this life, if he has given us his greatest Treasure for eternity? God is not a tightfisted person. He is the greatest Giver in the universe.
Now we know how to live.