Dear Chuck,
Thank you for the lessons you bring us each week and how you tie them back to the Word of God. Please provide some tips to help my husband and me be better stewards in the new year ahead.
Stewardship Tips
Dear Stewardship Tips,
Thank you so much. My wife, Ann, helps me research and respond to questions each week. We are grateful for your kind words. We can share some of the tips that have helped us.
Pray, reflect, give thanks
I suggest you find a place and time that is free of distractions so you can ponder and pray deeply. Ask the Lord for help to reflect on the past year — to recall specific ways in which He has helped, guided, or provided in ways you never could have imagined. Hebrews 12 is an excellent way to begin the process of reflection. It reminds us to remember with reverence and awe how God provides and sustains us through the years.
Look back through your calendar or journal for prompts. There may have been days of deep sorrow or great joy. In both, we are told to give thanks because God uses them to sanctify us and conform us to His image.
Ann and I often refer to Lamentations 3:21–24 upon rising in the morning. We go back and forth, reciting the phrases. It is a good one to think about in reflecting over the past year:
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”
It’s a valuable practice to recall the ways we experience God’s love and mercy and praise Him for His faithfulness. It enables us to look to the future with renewed hope.
A stewardship analysis: Money, motives, and management
Set aside a few hours and review your earnings, spending, giving, saving, and investing over the past twelve months. This will prepare you to do some analysis. Make a rough draft, then copy it in a journal or place that you can refer to in days/years to come. Access it frequently to remember God’s work in your life. Imagine keeping decades of reflections to pass down to loved ones. Don’t rush. In fact, you may recall things that you need to record in days to come. Your family may want to participate and share their reflections together.
After reflecting on the year and God’s faithfulness, pause and thank God. The phrase “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever” is repeated in the Bible and should be repeated by us throughout our days. See 1 Chronicles 16:34; 2 Chronicles 5:13; Psalm 106:1; Psalm 107:1; Psalm 118:1, 29; Psalm 136:1; Jeremiah 33:11
Ask Him to guide you in the New Year
We all make financial mistakes, experience unwanted hardships, and need God’s wisdom to make progress daily. With every new year the Lord gives us to live, we can start fresh with renewed hope and dreams for serving His purposes as good and faithful stewards. For Ann and me, our financial journey started fresh after 21 years of marriage. For the past 24 years, we have been blessed to have seen God redeem us from so many mistakes early in our marriage and have the joy of learning and applying His financial principles