A Proverbs 31 Woman Has Good Stewardship Of God’s Gifts

What Is Stewardship?

Stewardship is defined by Google as “the job of supervising or taking care of something, such as an organization or property.” Merriam-Webster defines it as “the conducting, supervising, or managing of something. especially: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.” Wikipedia defines Christian Stewardship as “the responsibility that Christians have in maintaining and using wisely the gifts that God has bestowed.”

Simply put, we were put on this earth to take care of what God has given us. Everything in this life belongs to God, he is simply loaning it too us for a while. For modern Christians, that means everything from money to possessions to time to our abilities are gifts for us to care for and maintain.

An example would be if a friend went on vacation and left their dog in our care for a week. I know I’d be careful that I don’t neglect that dog so it starves to death or gets depressed with no one to play with. I would be embarrassed if their dog was returned in a worse state than they had left it with me in. They would be very disappointed.

It’s the same with God’s gifts. Everything we have is given to us to use for a short time and will be left behind for future generations when we go to heaven.

God’s Example

Matthew 25:14-30 is Jesus’ parable of the talents. He tells a story of a wealthy man who went on a trip and trusted his money to three servants. A talent was a huge amount of money back then and he entrusted five talents to one servant, two talents to another servant, and one talent to another servant. The first two servants were wise and doubled their talents, what had been trusted to them while the owner was away. The third servant hid the money. When the owner returned, the first two were honored for their wise use of the original trust, the third one was yelled at and kicked out of the house, without his gift. Christian stewardship is not simply keeping our gifts in the state that we can return them, but we strive to increase what we have to return it to God’s use better than we received it.

How Does A Proverbs 31 Woman Show Good Stewardship?

She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.

Proverbs 31:18 NIV

Profitable Trading

Verse 16 says that she can buy a field and plant a vineyard with her earnings. That means that she was given financial gifts. She earned enough to invest and verse 18 says that she is smart enough to be profitable. Do you know what takes to be successful at investing? It is possible to get lucky and make a profit without doing research. That is rare, though. To make a profit at investing, we need to do research. We need to understand how successful a company has been and if we think the business will be successful in the future. There is a reason that people make a full-time living from investing. Managing money is like managing people. Sometimes they need hands on training or careful supervising, other times they can be trusted to do their work correctly. Everything in a Christian woman’s life can be like that. Whether it’s a house that can be cleaned, a car that sometimes needs a mechanic, family that sometimes needs to be managed or an extra loving hand, friendships that should be maintained, or abilities that aren’t always needed, not everything needs our focus all the time. Somethings can be let to take care of themselves while we focus on something else, but everything should be maintained as best we can.

Her Lamp Doesn’t Go Out

Do you know what keeps a lamp burning? Planning. Take a moment to think about it. Obviously the lamp needs oil (since that is what they used back then), but it took planning to understand how much oil would be needed to keep that lamp burning all night. If there wasn’t enough oil, the lamp would have sputtered out during the night. If there was too much oil, it might have been wasted. Knowing how to maintain and increase our gifts, such as possessions or abilities, for God’s use is a key part of stewardship.

Christian Stewardship

The problem many people get when maintaining their possessions is that they forget their things aren’t theirs. We need to remember that what we are doing is maintaining God’s things to be used for God’s glory, not growing our sufficiency and creating an inheritance for our children. Jesus said it is hard for a rich man to get to heaven because he was rich. King David was incredibly rich, yet he was praised for his faith. A rich man is defined by his riches. A Christian who defines themselves by their faith instead of their possessions is still a Christian. So let’s remember who we are maintaining our money, possessions, and gifts for instead of getting focused on our abilities to increase stuff. Remember it’s God’s gifts that we can have more, not our own abilities to manage what isn’t really ours. Everything should be for God’s glory and God’s plan.