Scripture:
Read: Genesis 1:26-31 - Soil and Water, Subdue it

26. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God has made us in his own image. That is a powerful concept. God put us on earth to be like him - in his image, his likeness, and to be and do like him. His task on earth was to rule over the earth. The idea of rulership over earth has in it the concept of management. Man was to be a manager, a steward, or an overseer of God's creation. He was to take care of what God entrusted to him.

In the end of all things every man will be brought before the Creator to give an account of himself. The question according to Jesus in Matthew 25 is "Were you a good steward or a bad steward?" "Did you manage well what God gave to you or did you waste it, squirrel it away, or use it for the King?"

It is not yours in the first place. You are just the appointed caretaker.

John Wesley's Example

Take John Wesley for example. He was one of the great evangelists of the 18th Century, born in 1703. In 1731 he began to limit his expenses so that he would have more money to give to the poor. In the first year his income was 30 pounds and he found he could live on 28 and so gave away two. In the second year his income doubled but he held his expenses even, and so he had 32 pounds to give away (a comfortable year's income). In the third year his income jumped to 90 pounds and gave away 62 pounds. In his long life Wesley's income advanced to as high as 1,400 pounds in a year. But he rarely let his expenses rise above 30 pounds. He said that he seldom had more than 100 pounds in his possession at a time. This so baffled the English Tax Commissioners that they investigated him in 1776 insisting that for a man of his income he must have silver dishes that he was not paying excise tax on. He wrote them, "I have two silver spoons at London and two at Bristol. This is all the plate I have at present, and I shall not buy any more while so many round me want bread." When he died in 1791 at the age of 87 the only money mentioned in his will was the coins to be found in his pockets and dresser. Most of the 30,000 pounds he had earned in his life had been given away. He wrote, I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hence; but in every other respect, my own hands will be my executors. In other words, I will put a control on my spending myself, and I will go beyond the tithe for the sake of Christ and his kingdom.

Quotes:
"Stewardship is the act of organizing your life so that God can spend you." - Lynnn A. Miller, Author

"When money is sent to me for my own use, I pass it on to God. As much as $5,000 has been sent at one time; but I do not regard such gifts as belonging to me; they belong to Him, whose I am and whom I serve. Save for myself? I dare not save; it would dishonor my loving, gracious, all bountiful Father." - George Mueller, English Pastor