Stewardship

Dear teenagers,

In this issue we are commencing a series of short articles written especially for you as monthly devotionals with a recommended Scripture reading. You will find them each month right here, the Lord willing, on the inside back cover. We hope you will read them and ask the Lord to bless them to your heart.

The first series of articles deals with the theme of stewardship and is based on Lord’s Day 42 (the eighth commandment) of our Heidelberg Catechism.

With pastoral warmth,

Rev. J.R. Beeke

P.S. If you have ideas or issues which you desire to have addressed in this “Corner for Teens” feel free to write.

The Bible speaks twenty times about stewards or stewardship. A steward is someone who manages a household, estate, or business on behalf of an owner. A faithful steward cares for the goods of his master or boss as if they were his own. He has a heart for his stewardship.

Did you know that we were created in Adam to be stewards? Adam was placed in “the garden of Eden to dress and keep it” (Gen. 2:15). He received the earthly creation into his trust, not to do with it as he pleased, but to exercise dominion over it as God pleased. In this stewardship of our first father and covenant-head, we too were to be dedicated to God, focused upon Him, and employed in His service.

But Adam, and we in him, proved to be faithless, thievish, unjust stewards. We chose to become sinning thieves before God. In Adam, we participated in the most wicked theft that ever took place. We stole from our Creator who had never done us wrong, yes, from the very tree which represented His authority. The guilt of that theft is justly imputed to us. And we inherit its pollution.

Now we enter this world as thieves, needing the eighth commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” Our very nature is thievish, selfish. We are not only thieves because we steal; we steal because we are thieves. We treat this world and our possessions as if we (and not God) own them all. Instead of rendering heart-service to God, we want others to be stewards to us.

One day God shall ask us to give an account of our stewardship (Lk. 16:2). He will judge us according to the original purpose of our creation. Did we use our possessions, time, gifts, resources, energies, affections to glorify Him? Did we have a heart for God in our thoughts, words, and actions?

Dear young friend, give an account of your stewardship now— before eternity comes. Bow your knees. If you are not seeking God above all, ask Him to open your eyes to your thievish, selfish lifestyle. Ask Him to lead you to know the perfect Steward, Jesus Christ, who was always about His Father’s business (Lk. 2:49).

By grace, those who are burdened with the thievishness of their stewardship shall find refuge and forgiveness in this precious Steward. They learn the secret of true happiness and stewardship as found in 2 Corinthians 6:10, “as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” They learn to surrender all to God. But they also learn that through surrender lies victory. Those who lose their lives shall find them. In Christ they shall possess all things (1 Cor. 3:21-23).

— JRB

Scripture Reading: james 3

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