George Muller on Stewardship 1

In concluding this portion of my narrative, I would add some hits on a few passages of the word of God, both because I have so very frequently found them little regarded by Christians, and also because I have proved their preciousness, in some measure, In my own experience; and therefore wish that all my fellow-saints may share the blessing with me.

1. In Matt. 6:19-21, it is written: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Observer, dear reader, the following points concerning this part of the divine testimony:

1. It is the Lord Jesus, our Lord and Master, who speaks this as the lawgiver of his people, - he who has infinite wisdom and unfathomable love to us, who therefore both knows what is for our real welfare and happiness, and who cannot exact from us any requirement inconsistent with that love which led him to lay down his life for us.
2. His counsel, his affectionate entreaty, and his commandment to us his disciples is, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.” The meaning obviously is, that the disciples of the Lord Jesus, being strangers and pilgrims on earth, i. e., neither belonging to the earth nor expecting to remain in it, should not seek to increase their earthly possessions, in whatever these possessions may consist. This is a word for poor believers as well as for rich believers; it has much a reference to putting shillings into the savings-bank as to putting thousands of pounds into the funds or purchasing one house or one farm after another. It may be said, but does not every prudent and provident person seek to increase his means, that he may have a goodly portion to leave to his children, or to have something for old age or for the time of sickness, etc.? My reply is, it is quite true that this is the custom of the world. But whilst thus it is in the world, and we have every reason to believe ever will be so among those that are of the world, and who therefore have their portion on earth, we disciples of the Lord Jesus, being born again, being the children of God, not nominally, but really, being truly partakers of the divine nature, being in fellowship with the Father and the Son, and having in prospect “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (1 Peter 1:4), ought in every respect to act differently from the world, and so in this particular also. If we disciples of the Lord Jesus seek, like the people of the world, after an increase of our possessions, may not those who are of the world justly question whether we believer what we say, when we speak about our inheritance, our heavenly calling, our being the children of God, etc.? Often it must be a sad stumbling-block to the unbeliever to see a professed believer in the Lord Jesus acting in this particular just like himself. Consider this, dear brethren in the Lord, should this remark apply to you.