Your Life is a Gift From God
“The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’"
Matthew 25:23 (NLT)
In almost every area of life, we understand the idea of stewardship encapsulated in Matthew 25:14-30. We understand it and live by it. To get a promotion at work, you have to demonstrate competence at your current level of responsibility. Sometimes parents expect their children to prove their diligence at caring for a goldfish before they get a dog.
It works this way in the kingdom of God as well. God determines how trustworthy we are by what we do with the skills and resources we have been entrusted with.
This idea is graphically demonstrated in the passage cited above. The master entrusts a sum of money to three different servants according to their abilities. That last phrase is crucial. The master did not entrust the servants with more than they could handle, but with amounts that were fully in their capabilities. He then expected them to use the money for the master’s benefit.
It works that way for us as well. God is the source of everything we have. Our resources, opportunities, skills and even life itself are gifts from God. We were given these gifts to be used for the benefit of God’s kingdom. As we prove ourselves faithful with the resources we have, God will grant us more – because we have proved trustworthy.
As we continue in the Christian to the Core series, stewardship of God’s resources is an important core value of the Christian life. All we have and all we are is a gift from God, and we are stewards of those gifts. As a wise person once said, “Your life is a gift from God - what you do with that life is God’s gift to you.”
-Pastor Alan
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Alan Cassady serves as Senior Pastor at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2011. When he's not preaching and teaching, he enjoys sci-fi movies and FSU Football. Read more about Alan here.
