Sunday, February 10, 2013

Mine.

This morning I woke up, put on a pot of coffee, and opened my Bible.
You might think me a bit pretentious to point that out.
Truth be told, I haven't done that in a while, open my Bible. An act so simple and important yet I've neglected it. But thankfully God is always waiting there when I do realize I'm not enough on my own and actually need Him.
The wandering Israelite feeling remorseful for making that golden calf.

As soon as I began reading I wonder why I ever stopped.  So many things began to pop out at me.
In the third chapter of Ephesians Paul writes about "the stewardship of God's grace" that had been given to him.
That word, stewardship, jumped off the page at me.

Steward (noun) : a person who manages another's property or financial affairs; one who administers anything as the agent of another or others.

Paul is not merely a recipient of God's grace, but he is a steward of it. Meaning he is meant not only to keep it to himself, but to give it out as freely as he had taken it in. As a steward of something it isn't mine, I'm only in charge of it.
I had always known of my calling to be a good steward of my stuff, of my money, but I never really thought of also being called to be a steward of everything God gives me, not just the tangible and temporal. I am also to give out grace, love, mercy, forgiveness, and all the other blessings he has freely poured out on me.

These things are not to be given begrudgingly or obligatory, but freely. No strings attached.

He never asks us to give to others what He himself has not already given to each of us. 

I pray that I take what He has given to me and share it abundantly, and honor the greatest gift of His sacrifice.

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