WFC Daily Devotional for May 14, 2009
This Week’s Theme: Destiny Project - Commitment Weekend
Today’s Theme: Commitment to Stewardship
Key Verse:
Exodus 34:14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy”.
Mediation
What is the start point for good stewardship? Some people start with actions – tithe, give, save, and stay out of debt. All of these are good points, but “action” is not the start point of good stewardship.
Another approach is exhortation to have the right or godly view of wealth and money. If we don’t love money and see it as a resource given by God, we will have the right belief to be good stewards. Again, this is wise counsel. It is, however, the second point in good stewardship.
Good stewardship starts with our view of God. We need to understand and know God first and then see money and wealth as He defines them. So, good stewardship starts with understanding the attributes of God. It is the duty and privilege of all Christians that we meditate on God’s attributes. People who accurately and intimately know their God are prepared to be strong in the faith.
It is important that we know God as He is and not as we want Him to be. God commanded that we have no other god before Him (Exodus 20:3). Quite often when ministers and teachers talk about stewardship, they stress that putting wealth before God is like worshipping an idol. Again, this is wise counsel and faithful teaching. There is more to having another god before the One True God. If we define God in our terms and in an image pleasing and politically correct to us, we have created an idol. We cannot put God into a male-box or a female-box or into a culturally correct image. It should be the quest of every Christian to know God and worship and serve Him as He is. We need to know His attributes. A.W.Tozer wrote: “Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and her moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.”
Of His many divine attributes – such as faithful, omnipotent, omniscient, righteous, immutable, sovereign, and just – two that are germane to stewardship are holy and jealous.
When God tells us that He is holy, He also calls us to be holy (see Leviticus). As one theologian describes it, “Holiness is that perfection in God that totally separates Him from all that is evil and defiling and common. As we call gold pure when it is free from any dross or impurities, or a garment clean when free from any spot, so the nature and actions of God are free from any impurity or evil of any kind whatsoever.” Holiness refers to the absolute integrity and purity of the nature of God. It means He is always absolutely pure and, therefore, distinct from all others. For us, men and women marred by sin, holiness means that we see God as He is. It means our heart is conformed to the image of God, and our life is regulated by the divine precepts. Hence, holy is used as nearly synonymous with good, pious, and godly. When our life and heart are guided by a clear understanding of God, we conform to His precepts and see stewardship through His eyes.
God’s jealous nature does not imply covetousness. J.I. Packer summarized it well when he wrote. “God is possessive of the worship and service that belongs to Him. It is a sin (as God points out in this commandment) to worship or serve anything other than Him. It is a sin when we desire or we are envious or we are jealous of someone because he has something that we do not have and that does not belong to us. It is a different use of the word jealous when God says He is jealous. What He is jealous for belongs to Him; Worship and service belong to Him alone and are to be given to Him alone.”
Thoughts to Ponder
What do I really know about God’s attributes? Do I have a godly worldview and see stewardship through His divine perspective?
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