Living Skillfully
With all your getting, get wisdom, Proverbs says. Wisdom, I have been told, is two things: the right application of knowledge, and consequently, the ability to live skillfully (live well coram deo). It is making good use of the mirror of God’s Word to expose our sin, transform our thinking, and shaping our lives according to the priorities of God’s heart. Living skillfully is the practice of biblical stewardship, seeking on to waste any of the gifts God has given us with the end result that my life would be conformed more and more to the pattern and purposes of God as revealed in His Word.
In the past couple of weeks, I have sought to put into writing ten areas where I hope to live more skillfully, asking specific questions and addressing particular weaknesses and sins in each area. Here are the areas:
1. Gospel
2. Family
3. Mission
4. Gifts/Talents
5. Work/Skill
6. Time
7. Money
8. Words
9. Sanctification of Others
10. Poor, Widow, and Orphan
These are areas that, according to Scripture, I have discovered to be most important to living skillfully as a follower of Christ (another way of looking at life would be to break down the roles I seek to fulfill, such as Christ-follower, husband, father, pastor, and missionary). What I currently working on is the development of a series of questions to ask myself regularly (and have others ask me!) with the goal of being a better steward of that which God has entrusted to me.
Do you have any thoughts, areas, or suggestions that you think would be helpful to living skillfully as a follower of Christ? What would your list/roles look like in your life?
Tags: Living Skillfully, Stewardship
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January 22, 2009 at 10:21 am
Timmy,
Great post and list. I have to admit that my list is very similar to yours. I really appreciate what you are doing here. I will most certainly be asking myself the questions you ask and examine myself in the areas that you are talking about. It seems like every area you listed ‘hit home.’
January 23, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I enjoyed your post. I don’t really have a list but I have been trying to live by the following statement, “Life isn’t fair, do the next right thing”. This seems to help me stay focused.