Stewardship

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be gloried through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:10-11 ESV

Has God given you a gift that is so much a part of who you are that you take it for granted and can get casual about it? He has me. In reflecting on stewardship today,  it struck me hard that it’s time for me and a few others to reconsider God’s gifts to us and His purposes for us. The Holy Spirit wants us to recognize His gifts, to value them and to be intentional about using them for His glory.

My husband’s gift is helps. He loves to help people. When he was young and strong, he worked tirelessly with the Salvation Army—serving in soup kitchens, working in thrift stores, pouring coffee for emergency workers, delivering food to hungry families, ringing the bell for Christmas donations— he helped wherever he saw a need. Folks thought it was just him—that he was a “good guy,” until a pastor who didn’t know him surprised us all by saying, “This is amazing. God has given him one of the biggest gifts of helps I’ve ever seen in anybody.”

It’s easy to recognize a gift from God in friends who find grace to pray for hours and the friend who feels called to pray for the sick; often her hands tingle and get hot with divine energy when she reaches out with the Lord’s healing touch. We also recognize gifts like pastoral care, evangelism, prophecy, Bible teaching and apostolic leadership that God gives  to the church in order to help the rest of us grow more like Jesus and bless others.

But for many of us, spiritual gifts can seem like natural outcomes of our interests, education and personalities. One of my friends loves to organize charitable fund-raisers, a third can listen discerningly. I’m an English major. Writing is a part of me. I found it hard to believe when a pastor first told me that God had given me a grace gift for writing poetry. The friend who will post these words on givenwordnow.com has a wonderful ministry from God in graphic arts, layout, design and computer skills.

Whatever our God-given gifts may be—whether we’ve divine grace for philanthropy, cooking for the homeless, teaching children, serving in a nursing home, or speaking before thousands, Peter teaches us not to waste or misuse them and to never assume they are our own or take them for granted. He reminds us be good stewards of the grace given to us.

According to Webster’s Unabridged, a steward is called to exercise responsible care over what’s entrusted to him—be it time, talent or treasure. A steward is never a menial, but is the highest ranked of all servants or employees. A steward would be entrusted with the total management of a large household or estate, everything, from banking and bookkeeping to the food on the table and the care and education of the master’s children. Stewards oversee the hiring and firing of every servant—from field hand to governess or cook, and they answer to no one beneath them; they are responsible to their master alone.

In exhorting us all to be good stewards of God’s varied grace, Peter reminds us that we have full responsibility for the gifts given to us. We are answerable to God alone for what He has supernaturally entrusted to our care. I’m responsible for what I do with my writing—I must stir up the gift that’s in me myself. I can’t let my husband, pastor, mentor or editor control or manage or unduly influence my writing. If I ignore my gift for other pursuits, if I taint it by writing drivel, if I bury it or hoard it by refusing to write, if I debase it by deliberate plagiarism and pass off undigested ideas from others as my own, if I misuse it by seeking personal advantage and glory and not the glory of God, I alone am responsible and accountable before God.

All of us are called to stewardship. Each of us has been given His grace: the flame of His love burns upon the altars of our hearts. His eternal life within us is not our own; it is a gift—of God and from God. Our bodies are His temple; we are His treasures and His treasured Son dwells within us: His Holy Spirit has given us varied gifts, and we are responsible for what we do with His treasures. We are not His puppets—of our own free will we must ask Him what to do with the priceless gifts He has given and then obey Him.

. . . I remind you that you should stir up the gift of God which is in you. . .
2 Timothy 1: 6 NHEB  

Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
1 Corinthians 4:1-2 NKJV

Lord, help us all identify the grace gifts within in us and be good stewards so that God might be glorified through Jesus Christ in us.