While many Christians think about worship as being primarily about singing, the Bible reveals that it encompasses our entire lives. And one of the ways we worship God is by being stewards.

Worship means to ascribe or attribute worth or value to someone or something, and everything we do is an aspect of our worship. Stewardship is important to this because it’s a tangible expression of worship. Broadly, stewardship encompasses three categories of our lives:

The first is time. As created beings, we are called to make the most of each day, using our time well for God’s glory. We work hard as though we are working for the Lord (Col. 3:23), but we also rest. We take the time necessary to care for ourselves, acknowledging our limitations as created beings because even they are a gift from God. They are a reminder that we are not Him.

The second is talents and abilities. God gifts each of us with unique abilities, both spiritual gifts and natural talents, which we are called to use in service of others as “good stewards of the varied grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10). As long as we live, we are to develop and use these talents to their fullest extent to the glory of God.

The third is our resources. Motivated by God’s generosity to us in the gospel, we are called to give God the best of what we have, managing the finances and material possessions He provides us with according to God’s purposes. This means striving to live within our means, as well as regularly, sacrificially, joyfully, and prayerfully giving financially toward God’s kingdom work out of a desire to see Him glorified in the world (Prov. 3:9; Matt. 6:1-4; Mark 12:41-44; 1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 9:6-7).

Every Christian, everywhere, is called to use everything God has given them to make His glory known throughout the world. That’s what worship is, and what wise stewardship is all about.