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How Lifestyle Relates to Stewardship Essay example

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As we discussed in our last newsletter, stewardship involves every resource (time, talents, treasures, relationships, etc…) that God has entrusted to you. One area that your stewardship becomes easily visible to the world is your lifestyle; it’s where you put your beliefs and values into action as you use the resources given to you. In other words, it is where the rubber meets the road. As a result, good stewardship requires us to have a proper attitude and mindset about every aspect of our life.

The subject of lifestyle is probably the most difficult to address for at least five reasons. First, God’s Word does not specify a particular lifestyle to live. For example, while God’s Word warns us not to pursue wealth there is nothing
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As a result, many Christians have a wrong attitude about ownership. Fifth, our culture teaches that our lifestyle defines who we are based upon our material possessions, education, income, and even what we do for our hobbies and leisure time (many people will join a country club simply to impress others). As a result, we are in a constant race to stay ahead of the Joneses while the Joneses are in a race to stay ahead of us. Will Rogers said it well… “Too many people spend money that they do not have to buy things that they do not need to impress people they do not know.”

As we have stated, the foundational principle of stewardship is the fact that God owns everything. But does He really care how we use those resources? God’s Word tells us that He will provide for our needs (for example, Philippians 4:19), but how do we separate our needs from our wants? Is it safe to say that everything above what we need for our basic survival is a want? How do we define nonessential items? It is very easy to convince ourselves that what we want is really what we need; after all, doesn’t God want us to be comfortable and happy? In addition to these difficult questions, we are living in a constantly changing world. Today, a car is an essential item. What about other tech-gadgets such as cell phones (and the many options that can come with one), personal computers, I-pods, etc…? Where do we draw the line on what is essential and what is not nonessential; or can we?
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