Being a Good Steward of God's Gifts Means Planning for Unforeseen Circumstances

As Christians, we have the responsibility to take stewardship of God's gifts seriously—remembering each day is a gift from God, and our earthly life tomorrow is not guaranteed. And if you consider that everything a person has is a gift from God, it is every person's responsibility to be a good steward of all these gifts we have been blessed with.

Sometimes when you are sick, it is difficult to think about anything but being sick. Have you ever felt so bad that you forgot to pray? As each day can be filled with unexpected challenges, it is very important to make plans now in preparation for days when you physically cannot make decisions.

Facing life's challenges in all seriousness, we must admit that every day three things can happen: you could live, you could die, or it could be the day that Jesus comes again. Only God knows which it will be. That does not mean that you must live every day anguishing over what is to come. To the contrary, Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:25, "That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing?"

If you should not worry about everyday life, does it matter how you make plans for your future? The answer is yes, it does matter. Jesus did not want us to worry about everyday life. However, he did want us to be considerate in our plans for life and death. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it" (Luke 14:28 NKJV).

Here is a checklist of eight areas that will help you be a better steward of what God has provided to you:

1. Check your will – The will designates executors, guardians, and trustees. Your executor's first task is to locate your will so make sure they know where it is. If you want to put together a will quickly, consider using an online legal document service. Remember that requirements, including signatures and witnesses, differ by state in which you live.
2. Set up a healthcare directive or living will – a living will is a medical directive written in advance that sets forth your preferences for treatment in the event of an inability to care for yourself.
3. Designate a power of attorney – the person you designate will be authorized to manage your affairs, typically financial matters, if you are not able to handle them yourself.
4. Update your life insurance – locate your life insurance. Update the beneficiary if needed. Tax laws have changed so you should investigate the effect of estate taxes on your life insurance if necessary.
5. Review your beneficiaries – the beneficiaries on all financial accounts that allow direct beneficiaries should be consistent with your wishes. For example, if you own a home, having joint ownership will affect how it passes to your heirs. Retirement accounts such as annuities, 401(k) accounts and IRAs should have their beneficiary designations updated.
6. Locate critical financial documents – it may sound like an obvious thing to do, but few people keep a list of where their vital records and passwords are. Included in these financial documents are all online accounts and the passwords to those accounts.
7. Locate critical non-financial documents – you should share with your family the location of marriage certificates, birth certificates, titles, deeds, passports, jewelry, safe deposit box keys and items in storage.
8. Make a list of professionals with whom you have worked – who assist you with your family's legal affairs such as an insurance agent, broker, attorney and accountant. Make sure you share the location of this list with your family as well.

The responsibilities we have today are very different than they were for people in biblical times. Then, conquering armies often took what they wanted as the spoils of war: "a prudent person might take whatever jewelry or money was kept in the house, bury it in an earthen jar, and remember the place so it could be retrieved when the danger was over" (Macarthur 2016). Caring for one's belongings was much easier in the age when everything could fit into a container and be buried in the ground.

In these more complicated modern times, the types property that people own are entirely different—most likely, all of your possessions can't be buried in an earthen jar. Regardless of the amount of property or belongings you have, arranging for its care is much easier before your health declines.

In Christ's day, to be a steward was a high position in society, and several times, Jesus used the example of stewardship in parables. The last sentence of Jesus' parable of the Faithful Servant and the Evil Servant sums up God's expectation: "...For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more" (Luke 12:48 NKJV).

– Van Richards is a Christian financial advisor as well as the founder of https://www.Advice4LifeInsurance.com and http://www.Advice4Retirement.com. Van draws from his 30 years as a financial advisor to write about financial issues from a Christian perspective. You can contact him at van@advice4lifeinsurance.com.