A wise woman shared her stewardship testimony one Sunday. She asked us to pull out some dollar bills and hold them in our hands. I was seven at the time, so I held a quarter in each hand. She spoke as one with authority: “As long as you are gripping this money with both hands, you have no way to reach out and hold Jesus’ hand.” This is still one of the better stewardship sermons I’ve ever heard. She reminded us of the consequences of what we hold tightly in our lives.
The letter to Timothy reiterates a teaching in both the Hebrew scriptures and the gospels. As long as we are grasping onto money, power, our need to be right, our refusal to forgive, or whatever we are holding onto tightly, we limit our ability to reach out and embrace fully a life of loving sacrifice in Christ.
What are you grasping tightly in your life? Is it life-giving, or is it something you need to release to God?
