The Gift of Jesus

 

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch” (Is. 62:1).

For too long stewardship has been a quiet thing, often thought of as something only between “me and Jesus.” Silent stewardship is less than faithful. In a desire to not want to seem “holier than thou” or that we are trying to make ourselves look better than we really are, we miss out on a powerful component of stewardship of the Gospel. Silent stewardship isn’t as contagious as visible stewardship.

Silent stewardship flies in the face of our call to make disciples of all nations. If someone had a cure for cancer but kept it to themselves, this selfishness would be viewed as criminal. To know how to end suffering and death and doing nothing to share it would be the height of irresponsibility.

In the same way, the steward can’t keep silent! Now, this is not a call to make stewardship about us. Faithful stewardship is always about Jesus. But to hide the stewardship of the light of the Gospel under the bushel basket of false humility is not good either. As faithful stewards today, we visibly live out our stewardship in such a way that points to Jesus.

The message of Jesus and the righteousness He has won for us is a torch that burns brightly in our sin-darkened world. While not talking about amounts and effort in stewardship, it is about pointing to the sufficiency of Jesus and His stewardship of His life, death and resurrection for us. As we live as faithful stewards of creation and joyfully crediting it all to the Lord, others see it. In this, they too will see Jesus and His righteousness for them! We can’t keep this quiet!

 

Prayer

Lord of creation, Your voice thundered into chaos and created everything we have. Your Word became flesh and we beheld glory. By Your grace, do not allow us to remain silent in proclaiming the Gospel. Lead us to be faithful and generous stewards. In this, keep us from being silent as You lead us to point others to Jesus so that they know the joy that has been freely given to us. Amen.

© 2019 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

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The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Stewardship Ministry
1333 S. Kirkwood Road
St. Louis, MO 63122
888-THE LCMS (843-5267) • lcms.org/stewardship