Christian Union: The Magazine Summer 2017 | Page 15

Do you truly desire God’s wisdom
and empowerment in making difficult
stewardship decisions (and evaluating your
own heart)? Then ask. He won’t leave you
in the dark. He has given you His Word
and His Spirit to guide you.
• And you shall remember the LORD
your God, for it is He who gives you
power to get wealth (Deut. 8:18).
• The LORD makes poor and makes rich;
He brings low and lifts up (1 Sam. 2:7).
• Both riches and honor come from You,
and You reign over all (I Chron. 29:12).
Stewardship is living in the light of these
truths. It’s living with the awareness that
we are managers, not owners, of what God
has entrusted to us for this brief season.
How we handle money and possessions
demonstrates who we really believe is their
true owner—God or us.
John Wesley offered four questions to
help decide how to spend money. Notice
how the last three flow directly out of the
first one:
portions of His assets with those whose
needs are greater than ours?
I spoke with a man who’d read The
Treasure Principle, my book on giving. He
owns a profitable business and believes for
the first time that he knows why God has
blessed him financially. It’s not so he can
drive nicer cars and live in a nicer house.
It’s to give it to build God’s kingdom. I
told him about several different missions’
organizations and pro-life projects, and
ways to help persecuted Christians. I wish
you could have heard the excitement in
his voice as he walked away determined to
liquidate more earthly assets and dramat-
ically expand his eternal investment port-
folio!
This man followed through, and has
given more and more over the years. He
isn’t reluctant and guilt-ridden. He’s been
liberated from material bondage, and is
thrilled to have gotten onboard with what
This article originally appeared in Eternal
Perspectives magazine. Reprinted with per-
mission.
randy alcorn is the founder and director of
2
An updated version of The Treasure Principle
was released in July.
Eternal Perspective Ministries (www.epm.
org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to
teaching biblical truth and drawing attention
to the needy and how to help them. A New
York Times bestselling author, Alcorn has
written nearly fifty books, including Coura-
geous, Heaven, The Treasure Principle, and
the Gold Medallion winner, Safely Home.
His books have been translated into over
seventy languages and have sold over ten
million copies. A revised and updated edition
of The Treasure Principle, his most popular
book, was released in July.
• In spending this money, am I acting as
if I owned it, or am I acting as the Lord’s
t