WHAT HAS HE PUT IN YOUR HANDS?

Lately, I have been thinking a great deal about stewardship. As I meditated on it, I found myself looking again at what Jesus Himself had to say. I would love to share what I discovered.

Three parables in Scripture teach us about stewardship: the Parable of the Talents, the Parable of the Faithful Servants, and the Parable of the Shrewd Manager.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, stewardship is “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.”

When something is entrusted to us, we are being asked to take care of it. And that means we will be held accountable for whatever happens to it.

Stewardship is much broader than we often realise. Personally, I like to look at it as taking care of what God has placed in our hands, and throughout Scripture it appears as one of God’s patterns for increase.

The Parable of the Talents teaches us something profound. Every resource entrusted to us is based on what God knows we can handle.

“To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.” — Matthew 25:15 NIV

That simply tells us that whatever is before us is not an accident.

It can be a front desk position.

It can be serving as a local government official.

It can be a gift for encouraging people.

It can be teaching in one classroom.

It can be a business owner serving customers with integrity.

It can be a woman writing one blog post each week that reaches one discouraged heart.

It can be a person hosting people around a table with warmth and dignity.

It can be raising our children.

It can be caring for our partners and lovingly providing for our families.

It can be a politician.

It can be a social media influencer.

It can be a footballer.

It could be an inheritance.

God is the One who gives all these opportunities. We should always remember that. And He sees what we do with them.

What God requires of us is not to be visible to the whole world in that position or assignment, but to be faithful.

The young maid who was instrumental in the healing of the Syrian General, Naaman, was not making headline news. She was faithfully serving her mistress, though she was a young captive girl from Israel. She had every reason to be angry or bitter against her captors and not even wish them well. Yet she told them about the Prophet Elisha and persuaded them to go look for him regarding the healing of the General’s leprosy.

The calling isn’t measured by its visibility.

It’s measured by faithfulness to the One who called.

Even when our assignment is not in the spotlight, it is no less significant.

Jesus first described the servant who buried his talent as “wicked and lazy.” He then instructed that the “worthless servant” be cast into outer darkness. The thought of that alone should make us take seriously whatever God has entrusted to us because God often uses our faithfulness in one assignment to prepare us for the next.

There is no assignment that is irrelevant.

In the Parable of the Shrewd Manager, Jesus said this:

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?” — Luke 16:10–12 NIV

I believe that when we realise this, we will no longer be fuelled by comparison or by chasing after the limelight. Competition will lose its grip because we will simply stop trying to manage someone else’s assignment and focus on ours.

In the Parable of the Talents, when the lord returned, he greeted the faithful servants by saying:

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” — Matthew 25:21 KJV

Faithful stewardship will lead to much more. That is the simple truth. But striving after something that is not yet in our hands while neglecting what we already have is not the way of good stewardship, and it has consequences.

It is not about titles or accolades.

It’s about being faithful to what has been assigned to us. Let us diligently steward what is in our hands and watch the LORD elevate us into our next season.

Faithful Stewardship is heaven’s measure of success.

Know this and know peace.

OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS ©