Devotionals Detail

Reading: Numbers 6:22-27

Why does human nature draw our attention to what we lack rather than appreciating what we have?

Perhaps you fear missing out on what others experience.

Perhaps you worry that your resources will run out.

Perhaps you are anxious about an uncertain future.

In all of this, we focus on what is not ours; what is scarce; what is out of our control.

And we join a long line of faithful God- followers who have done the exact same thing.

A perfect example is the story of the Exodus, as the Israelite people traveled for 40 years into an unknown future. Though released from Egyptian enslavement their excitement for freedom was short lived. Their complaints led them to wish they could return to their forced labor, perceiving it would be better than the wilderness. They worried there would not be enough food for all the people. They had anxieties about how long they would wait to enter the promised land.

And yet, life in the wilderness formed them into the people they needed to become for the future. In the worries God was not a good as their golden calf, God gave a way of living in the Ten Commandments. In the fears there would not be enough food, God provided manna on the ground, quail from the sky, and water from a rock. When they did not understand their future journey, God led them through a pillar of fire by night and cloud of smoke by day.

As we embark upon our annual stewardship campaign, we will be spending intentional time reflecting on the generosity of God. Because the story of the Israelites then, continues to be true today. God is continually generous, but we only will see it the more we practice awareness of it. When we let God’s generosity be in the forefront of our attention, it forms our faith for the future.

So this week, start taking a look around your life, and when you fear missing out on what others have, take a look at what you have been given to steward.

In the worries about a lack of resources, consider how the resources you do have might be stewarded well.

In the anxieties about an unknown future, look for the ways God is already here in the present.

As we take this journey of stewardship together, I pray each of us will start to see the ways that God is generous with us, in a way that helps us to grow in our relationship with God everyday.

You are blessed,