Stewardship

APAD DAY 16

by Daniel Owino Ogweno
03/04/17
Not For Sale
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

This is For You to Eat

God designed life in a way that it needs to feed to be sustained. Other creatures would basically eat by instinct, man would eat by instruction.

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”—Genesis 1:29.

Unlike the other animals, there is a communication between God and man. He is telling him (man) what to eat—this is the essence of eating by instruction. Before man could embark on the work that he was assigned, he was given his food.

It is important to feed the body and it is important that we eat by instruction. It is not expected for man to eat whatever he likes. Nutritionists tell us that what we eat determines what we are. The sustenance and functioning of the body depend on what we eat.

God has always made a provision for enough food to feed and sustain life of every soul on the planet. This is not to turn a blind eye to occasions when people starve for lack of food in some places. But, as we shall see more into details later, it is important to remember that people don’t starve because of lack of food in the world. The fact that food lacks in one place doesn’t mean God has meant that people living there should starve. We will come back to this in chapter 16.

In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus teaches His disciples to ask God for the daily bread (Matt. 6:11). This prayer is significant because it recognizes that God is our source. This means that even if we already have food stored for the days ahead, we must still not forget that God is our source. It may not be sensible to ask God for a daily bread that He has already provided. I believe it is still in order to thank instead of ask Him for our daily bread. To be good stewards, we need to know the source of the things we are using for personal purposes. This simply means that we are aware that we owe it to Somebody.

Sometimes we can get preoccupied with our needs. When this happens, we may not be good stewards because we would use our time and resources pursuing what God meant to follow us. We need to be good stewards of our minds. Worrying about our personal needs may make us bad stewards. The reason is we can easily misappropriate resources (see chapter 10).

While exhorting us not to worry, the Lord Jesus said:

“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” —Matthew 6:31-32.

Although our starting point was food, it is important to remember that things for us to use include everything: Time, money, talents, strength, beauty, resources of diverse kinds, etc.

A good steward must be in touch with the Master at all times in order to know what is for his personal use. After knowing that, he has to use it responsibly and accountably.