We are possesses of nothing but stewards of everything under our charge. This is a truth that we need to hold as we journey with Christ till He calls us home or He returns (whichever earlier). This places us in a position to take charge with the mindset that we must give an account to the Master who will call for it when we stand before Him one day in the not so distant future.
Here are some principles to help us navigate this space well.
Stewardship requires us to be mindful of our brevity of life and our responsibility to be fruitful in the areas under our charge whilst we are still here on earth.
We cannot afford to stagnate or regress in our stewardship, because we will be judged by God according to what we have done. Rewards are due only to those who are fruitful. While I’d like to lessen the mentioned impact of those who are unfruitful, the Bible makes it clear that even what they have been given will be taken from them and given to those who are fruitful.
We cannot dictate what we have been given. But we have the power to determine the outcomes. This means that while we are unable to determine the deck of cards given, we are given the free will to decide how we want to play our hand. That being said, it is pointless looking at someone who has been given more and wishing we were in their shoes. More does not translate to better stewardship. It only translates to greater responsibility. Because if the servant with 10 talents returned only 1 additional talent, he would have been deemed as giving a 10% ROI. And if the servant with only 5 talents did nothing more than sulk at why he did not have 10 talents to start off, he would have been bitter like the one with the 1 talent. But we know the outcome – the ones with 10 and 5 talents respectively doubled their holdings.
The conditions may differ, but the call remains unchanged. While the parables of Jesus did not refer to the conditions presented to all 3 servants, we cannot automatically assume that the ones who had more talents also had better conditions to steward their talents. However, what we can say is that the mandate or call to produce fruit and show results remains. The servant with one talent had a problem – he thought he was smart and had it better by burying the talent because he was afraid that he would lose that talent. He probably looked at the conditions or environment and felt that his chances to succeed were smaller because he had less. Unfortunately, this was unacceptable. The Master even went so far as to rebuke him and pointed him to bank interest by simply depositing it to at least get something. Some result is better than none!
What are you gifted in? What have you been given to take charge of? Let’s do a stock take and begin to commit to spiritual service here as a community. God delights in His people stepping up to the plate and serving out of the place of faith to usher in a culture of hope and love. As we walk in obedience to His call, He will empower us to be fruitful in what we do and pour out more so that we can steward even more for His glory.
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