Stewardship? Worship in action!

I have a confession to make.

Not long ago, I had an encounter that shook me more than I expected. I was walking down the street when a homeless man approached and asked me for some money. In that moment, my mind went into overdrive. I started analyzing the situation, trying to figure out whether he’d use the money for drugs or alcohol. I convinced myself I was doing the right thing by withholding it. “I’m not helping him harm himself,” I thought. Then I went further and told myself, “From now on, I’ll only give to people with visible disabilities.” It felt like a fair boundary.

But the truth? Deep down, I knew I was justifying my fear and judgment.

That moment stayed with me, not because I thought I had done something wrong, but because it challenged what I believed. Around the same time, I started learning about Kingdom stewardship, and that’s when everything began to shift.

For most of my life, I truly believed that what I had, my money, my time, my talents, was mine. I had worked hard for it, and I thought I had the right to use it however I saw fit. That belief made me feel proud, yes, but it also made me feel burdened. When you see yourself as the owner of everything, you're also the one responsible for keeping everything together.

But through learning about stewardship, God gently reframed everything. I realized that I’m not the owner, I’m the manager. Everything I have is a gift, a loan from God, entrusted to me not for my comfort or control, but for His purposes.

That revelation began to change how I lived. My time stopped being something I guarded for myself. It became something I could give, invest, and pour into others. My talents weren’t just for building my career, they were tools meant to serve people and glorify God. And my money? The thing I used to clutch tightly? It became a resource I wanted to use wisely, joyfully, and generously for the Kingdom.

That earlier moment with the homeless man, now it came back to me differently. I started asking myself, What if God wanted to use that moment? What if I was holding back something that He meant to multiply in someone else’s life? Stewardship, I learned, isn’t just about generosity, it’s about trust. And trust can’t coexist with fear or judgment.

These days, I wake up asking a new kind of question, “God, what have You put in my hands today, and how can I use it to honor You?” It doesn’t always lead to dramatic moments or grand gestures, but it brings peace, purpose, and a quiet joy that runs deeper than anything I’ve known before.

Kingdom stewardship isn’t about giving up what’s yours, it’s about discovering that it was never yours to begin with. And when you live that way, with open hands and a surrendered heart, you find something far greater, the freedom to live for something bigger than yourself, the power to bless others, and the grace to trust God with the rest.