You’ve been handed the most precious thing in the universe.
What is it? The very grace of God Himself—His unmerited favor and power. Yes, given TO you, but also given THROUGH you!
I’ve had a hard time getting started on this blog post, because how do you even convey the awesomeness of this topic?
God has given us much to steward for His glory. Our stuff, our relationships, our time, talents, and treasure. These are the things we most often imagine are put into the hands of the servants of Matthew 25 in what is called “The Parable of the Talents.” It’s true, we’re responsible for all these things.
But, Y’all. It goes way beyond these things. Imagine that you are one of these stewards. You look into your hands to see what the Master has placed there, and you see unlimited power available to bring people into God’s Kingdom and transform them into the people G
od intended them to be. Your Kingdom Assignment, your ministry to God’s people…these are not things that we do for God, it is the thing that He wants to do through you and me for the benefit of others as you steward His grace.
It’s Unbelievable
It’s a Privilege
It’s a Responsibility
It’s Unbelievable
One of the prayers that Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers and for us is that God would reveal to us
“…what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us
who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead
and seated Him at His right hand
in the heavenly places…” (Ephesians 1:19-20)
Now, Paul the apostle is the only one I can think of (after Pentecost) who experienced God’s power to save directly from the Lord Jesus Himself through a blinding light, without a human intercessor. But I did not experience God’s power that way. The channels through which God’s grace came to me were friends who witnessed, faithful Sunday School teachers, and preachers who consistently preached the gospel message. These were the stewards who were entrusted with God’s grace and they passed it along to me. (I’m so glad they were not like the steward from Matthew 25 who planted his talents and did nothing with them.)
Why does the Lord do things this way? I don’t know. I suspect it has to do with training His Bride to rule with Him in eternity. Unbelievable!
It’s a Privilege
This is the way Paul describes his stewardship of God’s grace:
“To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ…” (Ephesians 3:8)
You can hear Paul’s humility, can’t you? “What? You entrusted me with this? As unworthy as I am?” Yes Paul. And not just Paul—you and I are in that group of stewards as well, with the grace of God in our trembling hands.
"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,
as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
(1 Peter 4:10)
For His own reasons, He has chosen to use us as the dispensers of His grace to others.
It’s a Responsibility
Two of the Matthew 25 stewards were praised, because they did something. They took their stewardship seriously and got busy. A third steward didn’t do so well. He just buried what had been given to him, did nothing. And the Master didn’t like it one bit. Get the hint? This is us, entrusted with the very unmerited favor and power of God Himself, and we cannot, we dare not, respond to this with “meh.”
Everything we put our energy and attention into will fade except for this right here. There is nothing more important.
I’ve written a book about finding your Kingdom Assignment that might help you get started or get clarity. You can find it here.
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