We are stewards of God's Gifts

January 15-19, 2024 | Always Peachy Devotionals | Stewardship Week 3

What are the gifts that God has given you?

Have you taken time to list them? If you haven’t, it’s a really great exercise to try. I’m willing to bet that you can’t name them all, and even if you could write them all down, you’ll run out of paper.

God has given us so many gifts. I honestly think they’re uncountable, but then I haven’t tried to write them all down. I just thank God for them when I remember them.

When someone gives us a gift, there are a couple of ways to respond. Obviously saying thanks is a given. But when it comes to using the gift, you can go about it in different ways.

You can take that gift and put it on display, like in a glassed-in shelf full of lights. You can show it off and point to it as an example of the wonderful friendship you have with the person who gave it to you. And that’s fine—understandable even, but what if it was a gift you were supposed to use? What if it’s a pizza cutter?

Are you really going to put a pizza cutter on display to show it off? Granted, if it’s studded with diamonds and sapphires, maybe you should. But the point of a tool like a pizza cutter is to use it to cut pizza!

So, rather than putting it on display, maybe you use it. Maybe you use it all the time. You use it on everything, everywhere, every day. You use it to cut sandwiches. You use it to cut paper. You use it to cut fabric. If it’s something that needs to be cut, you use your pizza cutter on it. After all, a tool should be used, shouldn’t it?

So you use it and use it and use it, but you never polish it or sharpen it. It just gets thrown into a drawer with all the other utensils until it grows dull and rusty. But, hey, at least you used it.

I know those are both extreme examples, but I think we tend to treat our gifts that way. Either we idolize them or we misuse them.

God doesn’t give us gifts so that we can make idols out of them. He doesn’t give us gifts so that we can use them in the wrong ways or take advantage of them. God gives us gifts so that we can benefit from them, so that we can bless each other, and so that we can encourage and enrich other believers around the world (a.k.a. His Church).

Know what that’s called? It’s being a good steward of the gifts God has given you. Yes, you can steward your gifts. And that’s what we’re talking about this week.

• Jan 15 - Steward of your stuff (Luke 18:22)

• Jan 16 - Steward of your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

• Jan 17 - Steward of your family (1 Timothy 5:8)

• Jan 18 - Steward of your salvation (2 Timothy 1:14)

• Jan 19 - Steward of the Gospel (1 Thessalonians 2:4)

God has given us so many gifts, and it isn’t a good idea to take advantage of them. Just like we shouldn’t put them on a shelf to gather dust.

The resources God has given us are for us to use. We need to invest our time and energy wisely in order to make the most of them. Knowing that, I thought a great memory verse for this week would be Matthew 25:14.

This is part of a much larger story that is absolutely worth a read (Matthew 25:14-30). It’s basically the story of three employees who are given ownership of their master’s great wealth while he’s away. The first two servants make wise decisions to invest their master’s money well in order to make a profit; the third servant is lazy and does nothing. This is a picture of how God expects us to use our time and energy when it comes to the gifts He’s given us. We aren’t supposed to squander them. We aren’t supposed to sit on them. We’re supposed to use them—for Him.

Whatever gifts God has given you are intended to be a blessing. So how can you utilize your gifts today to glorify God in your life?

Praying for you guys!

Amy

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