Sometimes praying that God will help me be a good steward over my funds means so much more than just “God help me to manage money.” I’ve realized that making me a good steward means “hey I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t know, you may have a 100k salary ready for me. If you do that’s great and I am appreciative of it!”
But, if it’s not the case, Lord make me a good steward over my money so that by making only 20k I can one day be prepared for 100k. And now I’m realizing that sometimes asking God to make me a good steward means in ways that I don’t even realize.
So when I said today, “Lord I know I can pray to you for 100k and I thank you, but if that’s not where I’m at, make me a good steward over my money. And I thank you for showing me how to be one.” I understood that sometimes God is saying, “Hey, I’m going to make you a good steward in a way you don’t think. I’m going to teach you how to manage money, but I’m going to teach you how to fix things and work on things so that it seems like you make that much.”
My grandmother could’ve married someone who made a lot of money or had a doctorate and we all can. But, we also can say God bless me with a spouse that has what they have and can make provisions for our family. My granddaddy wasn’t a millionaire but he was handyman. They were married 35 years. So for 35 years imagine how many times a toilet needed fixing or a door or sink. That’s a couple hundred dollars an incident you don’t have to pay someone for.
Imagine the savings over that time. With 3 kids imagine the management it took because he already knew how to fix those things. We have to remember God has to be our good steward over our talents, relationships, and money for any of it to work.
Although I don’t make 50k a year, if I knew how to fix my car how much less would I spend a year on a car? If he doesn’t make 50k a year, but we don’t have to call a plumber every time a sink or toilet is messed up how much do we save? We get so caught up on what we think we want and what we know we want and miss out on what we really need and the people there to provide it.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting a man that makes 100k a year, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be the person who makes 100k, but there is something wrong with stewardship that doesn’t understand they can have those things with or without the check. There is something wrong with believing you lack because you don’t have all you want.
You lack because you don’t appreciate all that you need that you have. And that’s the issue. That’s the tough times. That’s the calamity we go through. When we think we lack or have to go without just because we don’t have all the things that we wanted that we never needed anyway.