“Lifestyle Stewardship” is a term used by Generis Partners to describe a level of giving that affects one’s living.  Always with us is the temptation to give in such a way that it makes little impact on how we live.  The challenge of Lifestyle Stewardship is to find ways to do just that--let our giving touch our living!

A successful Christian businessman commented, “My accountant tells me I have given all I can to the church this year.”  What he was saying, of course, was that additional gifts to the church would be too costly because there would be little or no tax benefit.  A close acquaintance of the businessman, humorously pointed out, “Come on, you’ve given the government’s money, now give some of your own!” 

A wealthy Christian woman responded to her church’s request for financial help with the statement, “Here is my gift.  This won’t hurt me much!”  Her words indicated that she had sought, and found, a way to give that would make little difference in her life.

King David declared, “I will not offer to God that which costs me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:24) David understood that the value of the gift presented to God is determined by its value to the giver.  The greater the gift’s value and significance to the giver, the greater its worth before the Heavenly Father.  The gift that would touch the heart of God must first touch the life of the giver!

This is the Spirit of Lifestyle Stewardship.  “If it is for my God, my gift must have meaning and value to me.”  Jesus said, “Many that were rich cast in much, but they did cast in out of their abundance.”  There it is!  Their gifts had a lessened value because they would never miss them.  It is not our gifts Jesus is focused on, is it?  It is our lives, our hearts, our values, and priorities.

Lifestyle Giving is a level of giving that affects me: my plans, my activities, my attitude and my approach to life.  Lifestyle Stewardship requires a measure of self-denial.  It means denying myself in one area so that I can give more of myself in another.  If I am to give more to God, I must take more from myself.  The difficulty for me lies, not in saying “yes” to God, but in saying “no” to myself.  It is not the giving that discomforts me; it is the giving up!