Greetings, Guardians of Time and Treasure!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are launching into a brand-new week with James, our seasoned life hacker, In his epistle’s fourth and fifth chapters (James 4:13-5:6), we will chart our course through the exciting realms of Chronos and Currency, of Future and Finance, or just plain “time and money”. This is the realm of Stewardship. Stewardship? Now, that’s a word you don’t hear in everyday conversation unless you’re a Hobbit entrusted with the One Ring. But in our Christian walk, stewardship is a significant part of the gig \u2013 it’s all about how we manage the time and resources God has entrusted to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, hold on to your calendars and checkbooks! We’re not just navigating the rough seas of financial planning or daily planner scheduling. James is digging deep, hitting right where the “X” marks the spot: our hearts. Yup! Our hearts, the epicenter of our desires and motives. Flashback to James’s profound revelation in the last episode: the cause of our troubles lies in our selfish desires (epithumia) and selfish motives (James 4:2-3). It’s not that we desire wrong things, but we desire even the right things wrongly, too excessively, making good things ultimate things. It’s the same rudder of our “time and treasure” ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being a steward, a guardian, isn’t about owning stuff. It’s about managing, investing, and utilizing what we have been entrusted with – our resources, both time and money – according to the Owner’s will, God’s will. But when our hearts are consumed with our plans and profits, as James notes here in The Tale of the Traveling Merchant (James 4:13-5:6), we tend to overlook what God wants us to do with our calendars and checkbooks. We cast off our steward hats and crown ourselves kings. We forget that we are not owners, that our time and treasure are not ours to use according to our whims and wishes. Instead, they are entrusted to us by God, who expects us to use them wisely, generously, and for His glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Guardians of Time and Treasure, our first task is to check for the heart issue, our “epithumia”. The very same selfish desire that causes conflicts can also sink our ship, stewardship that is. We must steer clear of the selfish desire icebergs and navigate our resources toward God’s kingdom, bearing the fruits of love, justice, and generosity. Let’s start by conducting a heart-check, asking God to replace our selfish desires with His will and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, here’s the big question for this week: Is your desire leading you to manage your time and money wisely according to God’s will?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greetings, Guardians of Time and Treasure! We are launching into a brand-new week with James, our seasoned life hacker, In his epistle’s fourth and fifth chapters (James 4:13-5:6), we will chart our course through the exciting realms of Chronos and Currency, of Future and Finance, or just plain “time and money”. This is the realm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifehack"],"yoast_head":"\n