Prayerfully Preparing Our Hearts for Stewardship: What is Abundance?
What is abundance? What do you picture when you hear that word? Maybe your mind races to something like an “abundant harvest.” It’s an apt metaphor. When we experience abundance, we do so instinctively. No one has to explain the feeling of plenty or overflowing fullness — we just know it when it happens.
The overflowing or abundant harvest also comes from some place. It has a source: farmers toil all season long to ensure a plentiful harvest. For Christians, our abundant life also has a source: our close relationship with God. In fact, from the very beginning it has been God’s desire for us to live an abundant life. God’s abiding desire for us is peppered throughout scripture:
- “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’” — Genesis 1:28-30
- The Message paraphrases Proverbs 11:25 in this way: “The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.”
- Jesus himself declared: “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” — John 10:9,10
St. Stephen has been a place for individuals to cultivate their one-on-one relationship with God, and to join with each other to be an outward expression of God’s love to the community at-large. The result? St. Stephen is living in abundance! Here, we have learned that abundance comes from trusting God, living generously, and investing in what lasts.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll share some of the abundance seen here at St. Stephen. Through stewardship updates and highlights, testimonials, and our stewardship worship series, we’ll also explore:
- How can your own Christian walk be made more abundant?
- How can you contribute to the abundance of St. Stephen?
- How does St. Stephen share the abundance God has gifted us with our community and our world — and how can we continue to do so?
We invite you to begin prayerfully considering these questions ahead of our annual season of stewardship this fall, beginning in October.