One of the great privileges we have in our being members of Christ’s holy Church is to manage all of that which God has given to us. Indeed He has given us so very much. Just ponder them: life, health, bodies that heal themselves, our skills, families, orderly government, freedoms, peace in our land, only to name a few. And yet, these are not the important things. The one important thing is that God, in His infinite love, has sent the one provision by which we might have eternal life instead of eternal death. That one provision is Jesus the Christ. It is through Christ’s life, suffering, death, and resurrection that we have been bought away from certain condemnation for eternity into a certain life that will never end. There is no other gift that will ever match this. For this we can and will be eternally grateful.

It is out of this realization, that we have been gifted so incredibly, that we come to know that we are to manage well, in a God-pleasing manner, all that God has given us. In that management, we also realize that it is only right and proper that we give back to God a certain percentage of what He has first given us. So we set aside a portion of whatever we get of material blessings to give back to Him. Of the many things that we get from Him that can actually be given back are our time, our talents, and our treasures. So we make decisions about what percent of our time we use for God—in church, at home, and in reaching out to our community, what percent of our talent we use in carrying out those God-pleasing tasks, and what percent of our income we turn over to Church to be used specifically for the proclamation of the Gospel. This is what we call stewardship—being stewards or managers of our time, talent, and treasure.

What a privilege to belong to God, first of all, and then to use what He has given for His work and for His glory. All praise be to God for what He has done. We gladly and willingly share with Him some of what He has given to us!

After hearing about Time, Talent, and Treasure where we realize that all that we have is from God and where we come to know that we have some wonderful and awesome responsibilities to manage well all that we get from God, we then ask, what is the motivation for doing well with our gifts from God. Obviously, it’s that God has given, then given, and then given some more to us—we who are so woefully unworthy of anything from God. That’s a start to catch the motivation. To say more is to acknowledge that without God’s first actions, we would not only not have anything, but there would be no hope for our getting to be with Him heaven, either. Now we’re getting there, We’re to the point that we can hardly hold back from responding to Him. We can then say, “It’s a matter of response.” We respond to what God has done—not to get more, not to pay for what we have gotten. No, we just respond out of thankfulness. God is indeed so very good and with full hearts, we say, “Thanks, O good and gracious Father!”
We also need to be honest and say that our responses are simply what is appropriate. We don’t deserve any credit for our responses. We don’t deserve any additional gifts from Him. We can never pay for all that we have from Him. We just respond and in doing so, we are just doing what is the right thing to do. The passage where Jesus tells about the servant who comes in from the field and then prepares the meal for the master is an incredible story telling us that what we will have done over our lifetime for Jesus is only what we should be doing as His own children (Luke 17:7-10). It is an honor and a privilege to be able to respond to Him, to His love, to His giving and to do so with hearts full of praise and thanksgiving.
So, again, we respond to all that God has done in bringing us life, in sustaining that life, in restoring us to eternal life, and giving us the high honor of taking that same message to those around us.
On the 12th, we will get the opportunity to tell God how much we will give back to Him over the next year in our Divine Service. We’ll take a few minutes in that Service and prayerfully make a promise to Him as to how much of what He has given to us we’ll return back to Him—for His work among us and around the world. It’s our response to Him with our materials blessings. It’s a way of saying, “Thank you, dear Lord,” and it’s a way of serving Him and His work.
May the Lord richly bless you in your deliberations toward making that promise on the 12th.