Embracing a Life Well Lived: Leaving a Legacy of Christian Stewardship (Part 2)

In the first exploration of what defines a well-lived life, we focused on how the legacy we leave has meaning beyond financial gain. Let us dig deeper into legacy building and financial planning by examining how living a life based upon biblical principles and personal responsibility will help make us better stewards of our resources.

Part Two: Living Your Legacy Based on Biblical Principle and Personal Responsibility

Our Christian faith teaches us many things about ourselves, our duties and obligations, as well as what it means to be a servant of God. At the core of these important lessons lives the biblical principles of stewardship, personal responsibility, and accountability for how we choose to live our lives. These moral imperatives define who we are as Christians, and what a powerful legacy built on kingdom purpose will say about us when we are gone.

Many of us have been blessed with the responsibility of managing the proper stewardship of our finances. How do we build a financial legacy that serves a kingdom purpose and provides for those we love, while also adding to our legacy by supporting the causes in which we believe? How do we manage to accomplish this while living in a society caught in political turmoil and where success is often based upon financial gain alone? You need only look to the fellowship of love grounded in your faith in God to find the answer.

Living a life based on biblical principles and Christian accountability means much more than responsibly managing our financial affairs. It also means we should encourage each other to grow in our spiritual maturity. Proverbs 27:17 reminds us of the shaping force we can have on the lives of those around us: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Hebrews 10:24 goes further to tell us how we should use that influential ability: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

God has given us bountiful gifts, both individually and collectively. We have been given the gift of love and an ability to show our love of God, deeply embedded in the life we live, to our neighbors, and to the family we cherish. We have also been given the awesome responsibility of having dominion over creation, as we see in Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’”

There is nothing on this earth that was not given to us by the grace of God. Therefore, we are answerable to God in all things, financial and otherwise.

As we look to build and manage our legacy, it is good to remember that it is never too late or too early to begin planning. Most importantly, however, start living your legacy now, and base on the biblical principles of accountability and personal responsibility.

When you live this kind of life, it will be a life well lived.

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