Stewardship

So continuing the train of thought from the previous post about brokenness. I’ve thought a lot about the future and what is it that God wants me to do/ what I should do with my life. And then I went to church, and the message was on stewardship. God’s timing is always perfect timing.

There wasn’t anything necessarily new about the sermon, but it was a very good reminder and perspective given my high-strung and anxious nature.

Matthew 25 is the story of the Servants and Talents, and it is a passage I have read and learned about time and again. There is a master who goes away on a trip, entrusting his wealth to his servants. Something that I tend to gloss over is a small phrase quite important in the setup of the story: the servants are entrusted with wealth, each according to his ability. None of the wealth belongs to the servants; they were given temporary stewardship of their master’s wealth. Similarly, everything we have is given to us temporarily by our Heavenly Father.

“What we think we own, is on loan.” 

(Try saying that out loud. It rhymes hehe). Pastor Collin flashed a slide with a bunch of bullet points. Our Time. Ability. Family. Body. Vocation. Relationships. Resources. Health. Influence. Knowledge. None of this really belongs to us. The list doesn’t seem like a big deal, until I started reflecting on each one specifically. My time is on loan, yet I am so possessive over it. My ability is from God for me to steward, yet I am so proud of all that I can do. My family is a gift from my Master, yet I so often think I deserve all their love, prayers, and support.

Obviously these are not free gifts. Well, they are free gifts, but we are accountable for the gifts that God so graciously gives us. The master in the parable returns from his journey and settles accounts with each of the servants. They were responsible for what they did with the wealth. Here, we notice that the servants were held accountable for their faithfulness, which Pastor Collin defined as “a long devotion in one direction.” Success was not measured by output, but by faithfulness. The master (which in our case is God) does not care about what we do compared to others, but what we do with what He gives us. This is scary, because I know for a fact that God has given me an abundance. Today, I learned that one only has to make $32,000 a year to be considered the top 1% of wage earners in the world. While I don’t make quite that, I am wealthy in so many other ways. Relationships. Resources. Health. Knowledge. Just to name a few.

At the end of the sermon, we were asked the following questions. Some of them I don’t have an answer to. But if you want to share your answers or just talk about the things you feel like God has given you to steward, I’d love to chat! But here are the reflection questions:

-       Am I using what I’ve been given for me, or for my Heavenly Father?

-       If God and I settled accounts, would He say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?

-       How am I investing my life in others?

-       How is the world a better place because of my being a part of it?

Ending thoughts I had in my notes that I starred:

“I am made on purpose for a purpose.”

“God is for me, but it’s not about me.”

And then we sang a new song called “Way Maker.” It really blessed me, and I hope it blesses you too. And this Sunday, I got to play it with the worship team! It was so, so cool to see how God uses music to touch people (ya know, when you see people crying because it’s the last song in the set and the lights turned on).

Anyway, thank you for reading about a sermon. Have a blessed start of your week! Gotta love these Orlando clouds :)