1/12/08 - Life Journal - A Steward's Mentality

And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

Luke 12:16-20

God had blessed this man with plentiful crops. Enough that it was more than he could handle. I don't think it was His purpose to have this man sack it away for himself so he could live the "good life". Jesus asks the people what would happen to this surplus if the mans life is demanded from him this very day? Instead of sharing this excess with those in greater need his selfishness, greed and worry led him to build even greater barns to keep it. We need to be able to recognize when our needs are met, not spend our lives worrying like the example in verse 30, "For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them."

I live way over the "need/want threshold" (that's my own term, now I'm a scholar). I could support, help, finance, whatever the word you want to use, a lot more people on my salary than I do but what's stopping me. Greed (I worked for it so I deserve it), Pride (my family is going to have everything they ask for) Selfishness (blowing everything I'm entrusted with) Stupidity, Ignorance, Sin. Yep, that just about sum's it up. I'm a dead end for God's blessings and it's an even greater blessing and example of His grace that He continues giving me everything He does. I need to change my habit's quickly and adopt a steward's mentality before He gives up on me or calls me home.

Father, I gotta put my faith in you. I have excuses, you've heard 'em. The best being, "once I get ahead of things I'll be a better giver", trouble is You keep increasing my blessings and I never get on top. Who do I think I'm kidding?