January 23, 2012
Today’s Text: Read Matthew 6:9-13
As we start this third week of our study, take a moment to ask God to speak to you through His Word this week.
Did you do it? Great! This week’s focus is on this idea: For us to be faithful servants of God we have to have a stewardship perspective. A steward is a manager of someone else’s property and affairs. In the Bible we find this kind of perspective all over the place. For the first three days of this week we’re going to examine Jesus’ model prayer that He taught His disciples how to pray. This perspective of stewardship can be seen throughout Jesus prayer. Let’s look at it phrase by phrase.
“Our Father….heaven”– Jesus addressed God as His Father, and taught us to do the same. The word “Father” refers to God’s relationship with us and His authority over us and all of creation. He resides in Heaven, a place outside of and superior to the sin-cursed world that we live in.
“hallowed be thy name”- God’s name is “hallowed” which means Holy. The name He has chosen, like God Himself, is holy and separate from those of us who are not holy in our practice.
So here are a couple of questions to help us think about how this relates to stewardship:
Both of these phrases refer to a similar idea: God as the authority over all the earth and God as the owner of all of the earth. Of course the attitude reflected in this model prayer helps us to know that it includes us as well.
Application:
Here are some questions to help you think about how this applies:
- How does the reality that God is the authority impact your view of your role in your relationship to Him?
- How does the reality that God is the owner of everything change the way you look at your stuff?
- How does our behavior and attitudes in regard to God not reflect these two realities?
- How does knowing that God is the authority and owns everything relate to my attitudes towards giving and generosity?
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
1. the fact that God is the authority impact, my view of my role in my relationship to Him is that I listen to god because he knows best.
2. The fact that god is the owner of everything, of my stuff it makes me look at them differently I used to always be like oh this is mine,mine,mine and on one else can have it because it’s mine. Now I’m like oh this isn’t mine it’s gods because he made everything in this world so everything I have is his and I’m so thankful he could give it to me.
3. I don’t get that question. 😦
4. Knowing that god is the authority and that he owns everything is sometimes hard and easy to give stuff away and be generous because you think if you give something you will be giving a part of god away, but some people when they give they know there doing the right thing because it makes god happy 🙂 so did I get that one right? So if anyone can help me with number 3 that would be awesome 🙂 thank you.
Wow Mafalda!! U did great! And same here I don’t get the 3rd one.. 😦 but ya I would live to help Mafalda on the 3rd one but idk bout it either… 😦 love u guys!!! 🙂
The third question is challenging us to look at our behavior and attitudes, and see if it is in line with respecting God as our authority, and recognizing that God owns everything and we don’t. We know we should do both, but this question is helping us examine ourselves and if these two points are evident in our lives. Does this help?
Yes thank you miss Laura!! 🙂
I don’t always live my daily life like God is my authority. I should. When I don’t it is like I am being disobedient,like a child is to a parent. I definitely need to be more respectful of this, after all, I expect this in my children, so I need to be a good example.
I definitely need to take care of all God as given me. Don’t you hate it when you lend a friend an outfit or maybe an electronic device, and they don’t take care of it? Like the shirt comes back with a stain, or the game is broken? How do we feel? I know I feel annoyed that someone didn’t respect my things. Well imagine how God feels when He sees us mistreat the things He has given us? It is not only about “things”, He has given us so much more than material things. He has given us family and friends. We need to treat each other with respect and help each other. My children are not my own. They are God’s. He had given me them to raise and take care of. I need to take this seriously.
I am guilty of not always taking good care of what God has given me. I take a lot for granted. I need to be more thoughtful about how I handle all of God’s gifts. If I remind myself that I am nothing without God, and have nothing without God, this should help me be a better steward.
I definitely think this is one area of stewardship that I am pretty good at. I like to be a giver, and try to be generous. I like sharing and making others happy. l will continue to be a good steward in this area and try to be even more giving.
Well one out of four ain’t bad 🙂
One out of four… Haha!
1. God being the authority has a huge impact in my relationship with him because he’s the authority he’s the boss the one who’s in charge of me. 2. God is the owner of everything I own so when some body wants to see something of mine or use it for a little I shouldn’t freak out and get over protective. 3. Are attitude should be a lot different when we have God in are life we freak out when something goes a little bit different like we can’t do a sertin
It don’t post my hole comment sorry
No prob man… You did great
1. Since He is like our ‘Father'(but in heaven, obviously(; ) we have to give Him the respect and obedience that we would give our parents. The verse tries to portray that He loves us and He is there for us, but He needs our respect and obedience because He deserves it from us and we sort of owe it to Him. We should actually treat Him BETTER than our parents because He has done sooo much for us it’s the least we can do for Him.
2. The fact that everything belongs to God really humbles me. Sometimes I think look what ‘I’ got, ‘I’ did this, that was ME. When in reality it all belongs to God and He has provided it for me. I can say it’s mine all I want, but ultimately He can take it all away in the blink of an eye and leave me with nothing. I have always been jealous of what other people had and thought “Jeez God, everyone else has all this cool stuff and I don’t. You aren’t providing like you said you would! I WANT I WANT I WANT and you aren’t giving it to me!” Now I realize I was being VERY ungrateful and selfish. He WAS providing…was i starving or in need of clothes? No, I had everything that I NEEDED. That way of thinking was especially selfish because there are plenty of people that don’t even have food and clothes out there.
3. How does our behavior and attitudes in regard to God not reflect these two realities? sometimes we can take for granted who God is and we can take credit for things that He has done for us. Im not sure I answered that right…
4. Knowing that it all belongs to God encourages me to give because how hard is it to give away something that belongs to someone else?…We should have no problem putting God’s things into the hands that He wants them. And im sure if He wants you to give He is going to make sure you still have what you need “my Lord will supply all my needs”
I really liked the opening of prayer in the beginning of the devotion. It’s a great reminder, and something we should already be doing regularly before we do our devotions, but something I know I always forget to do. Opening up in prayer is a great way to start, to not only transition yourself into the devotion but to ask God to open up our hearts and let us take in what He wants to teach us. So awesome.
On to the devotion…
I haven’t always treated God like He was the authority in my relationship with Him, even though He clearly is the authority, it’s easy to ignore and take things into your own hands and make yoursel the authority. This has been something I’ve really struggled with, in the past multiple times. God is in control of everything, especially when it comes to my life. God is the one I come to, and knowing that He is the one that is in the drivers seat really helps me because it’s a constant reminder that I can’t do any of this alone. I need Him to get through my every move, decision, etc. Really helps direct who is in control.
It’s so easy to think that everything we have, comes from a result of something we did, when in reality, everything we have comes from the result of everything God did. Understanding that God is the owner of everything I have is a motivator towards the way I take ownership, or stewardship of those things. I haven’t always been the best at this. At times I’ve got caught up in the fake reality that I was the one that got me what I have or that my parents were the one’s, so really it’s my decision or their decision what I do. But the truth to that lie is, I have to be the steward that owns up to the fact that it all comes from the big guy upstairs, and it’s up to me to use what He’s given me, to His advantage. It all comes back to honoring and glorifying Him!
Like I said in the above two questions, both those things have been something I’ve struggled with. My actions and attitudes haven’t always reflected to God that He is the authority, or that He is the one that provides everything. This is something I believe everyone of us needs to work on. It’s not a over night concept, it’s a constant struggle. The skit we saw at the conference about pushing God off the stool after we gave it to Him, is a perfect example. This is a subject we need to be serious about. God’s serious about it, so shall we.
I’ve always loved to give, even if I’ve had nothing to give, I always try to give as much as I can. Knowing God is the authority and that everthing comes from Him helps with this concept of giving because we realize that God’s given us everything to give back to others. We are here to serve, and part of serving is giving to others whethere that be money, items, time, etc.
God is the authority, and He sent His son down to die on the cross so we can serve Him. We do that by being a good steward of everything God’s given us.
1. I’ve always known that God is the authority and I’m supposed to obey Him, of course that does not mean I always treat Him as the authority or do what He says. Above, Ben was saying how we should call God Father. My relationship with God is similar to my relationship with my parents. I know I’m supposed to do what my parents say, but that doesn’t mean I always do it. It’s sin nature that makes me not want to do what God tells me, even though I know it’s the right thing to do. But God knows way more than I do, and He knows what’s best for me, I just gotta listen to Him!
2. I think knowing that God owns everything is actually a great thing! I definitely have a easier time giving to God because of this. When I think about it, everything is God’s so it shouldn’t be a big deal for me to give back to Him. Whether it’s giving of my money, time, or actual stuff, I’m just giving back to God what’s originally His. Nothing in this world is mine, but God has blessed me with so much here on earth for the time being, and He expects me to be a good steward of what He’s given me. I intend to do just that! 🙂
3. To be honest, I’ve always had a hard time with my behavior and attitudes. I used to have a major attitude when I was younger, and it’s something I still struggle with. What we’re talking about today should really change that though. I can’t just be talking about this, and how much I need to change and get things right but not actually do it. We learned last week that change starts with God, and that’s where I’m starting, I know I can’t do this without Him.
4. I’ve always been a person who likes to give as long it somehow benefits me too. (Horrible, I know) but really, that is very selfish. I’m not so much like that now, I like to give because it’s fun and brings me joy! But I sure don’t do it as much I should! I want to be a good example and have a good testimony and this is a good place to start, I think! It would be amazing if people could look at me and know that I’m a cheerful giver! Not just with money (which I don’t have a lot of.) but my time and other things as well. It’s the least I can do to give back to God after what He did on the cross for me!
I love the devotion for today, definitely something I won’t forget!