Can you believe that another year is just about over…I mean the church year. Remember that the church year does not correspond with the calendar year. Advent, the first season in the church year begins on the 4th Sunday prior to Christmas: this year November 30th. When we think of the gifts of God, we must recognize that time or life, both are the same, is His first and greatest gift. The Bible in Genesis reveals that it is in giving life to us that God gives Himself to us.
So, God’s gift of this year is nearly over. How did you use His gift? Is the world any different because of how you lived the year? Is it a better place? Is it worse? Did you, by the way you lived, add tension and confusion? Or did you promote peace? Is any other person now in relationship with God because of your efforts in this past year? Do you have a prayer list in your pocket with the names of your enemies on it so that you can pray for them daily? Who are you praying for? How about your neighbor with the three junk cars in the yard or the kid on the skateboard that keeps using your driveway as his own personal skateboard ramp?
So, how we spend each year results in stewardship. There is good and productive stewardship and there is bad and unproductive stewardship. Matthew 25:26 should be ample warning against wasting God’s gifts. So, the year is not yet over…what will you do? What will you do in the coming year…use it the same way you used this year, or do you have a plan to honor the gift of God in a way more pleasing to Him and changes lives; others and yours?
Stewardship! No matter what you think of it, no matter how much you hate talking about it, you can’t avoid it. YOU ARE A STEWARD. Your only choice is to be a good one or a bad one, the choice is yours.
After all—Oswald Chambers in his book, “My Utmost for His Highest,” says “Prayer changes situations far less than it changes me (you) that I (we) may change situations.”
Father Bill Myrick
