The Truth About Right Living - A Personal Observation

Once a person has received Christ as Saviour, he or she may embark on one of several different courses. Some of those courses might cause that individual to become consumed by one or more of the current-day Christian issues, such as "speaking in tongues", "once saved, always saved," and "election versus free will. " Many have already followed such avenues, and I did, too, for a while, even though none of those paths, in my opinion, really lead to what God actually wants from us.

Based on my experience in the late Eighties, my belief is that what God really wants from us is our undivided love. For me, this is the correct and even the only path to pursue. While we might try many things in this life and may even become highly involved in many of those things, nothing more than our genuine love for the Lord is required, and by the same token, nothing less will do! Such a simplistic approach to life might sound terribly open-ended, but it is intended to. In my mind, how a person satisfies this clear, specific requirement in their own life is very much their own individual decision. I know what I do to show my love for the Lord, but I do not feel obliged or qualified to tell others that they should or must do exactly the same things.

Over the last two chapters, what I believe to be the second most important principle for Christian living was presented, and that aspect of our Faith was shown to be one of trust, where each person places his or her complete trust in the Lord and looks to Him for their physical needs. Many in this life are too highly focused on matters on this side of the grave. They have placed too much importance in education, good jobs, nice careers, making big money, and trying to have it all. Yet, in my opinion, the individual who wishes to approach this life correctly should strive to live equally well on both sides of the grave. This means to totally submit to the Lord's will and to trust Him in all areas of your life. If a person wants to be truly happy, he or she will best accomplish that objective by seeking to live the life that God wants, and that includes trusting Him to meet all their needs, rather than to pursue and be overtaken by all of the dead-end paths of this life.

One might think from reading the first principle for right Christian living that life is meant to be sitting around expressing great words of love toward God. Similarly, one might conclude from reading the second principle that life is just sitting around waiting for God to give us everything we need. But as the third principle is examined, the message should be that neither of these thoughts is correct. Nowhere in Scriptures or anywhere else do we find teachings which imply that Christians are to just sit around. In fact, the third principle, just by its connotation, suggests otherwise, because this third principle for right living, in my opinion, is centered around stewardship!

According to the Bible, God requires each of us to be a good steward in this life, with our life, and for all our life as the following words by the Apostle Paul indicate:

"But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, 'AS I LIVE, SAITH THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS TO GOD. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.'" (Romans 14:10-13)

Because each of us must give an account to the Lord, each of us needs to know exactly what it is that we should be trying to do. Therefore, we need to be able to define stewardship, and we need to know what it means to be a servant of Christ and to show ourselves faithful.

Many think of stewardship as the giving of one's financial resources and assets to the Lord's work. However, this definion, in my estimation, is far too limited because it does not fully cover the complete meaning of this critically demanding requirement. A more comprehensive definition comes from the dictionary. The Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines the word "stewardship" as "the individual's responsibility to manage his life and property with proper regard to the rights of others." Therefore, as I interpret the meaning of stewardship, the real emphasis to me seems to reduce down to an individual's responsibility to manage his or her life and property for another.

My opinion is that each of us is called by God to be a manager of his or her life and also to be an overseer of his or her property. We are caregivers, if you will, of those things which have been entrusted to us by our Heavenly Father. If we accept that entrusted responsibly, as I believe we should, then no one has time or opportunity to just sit around. Managing one's life and property requires tremendous effort. Being a good steward is not easy, and it definitely does not happen automatically or by chance! These tasks, as we shall see in the next chapter, demand that each of us works hard and does his or her best across many different areas of life.