Welcome to 2024! (A little bit early.)
Yes, today is New Year’s Eve, and I hope each of you are celebrating responsibly. For us here at Safe Haven Farm, there’s a charcuterie board in our future. We had one last year, and it was a hit.
Something I recommend that every person does at the end of a year is to look back over the previous year and reflect. Sure, most of us do this anyway, but how often do we reflect with the intent to truly adjust our lives?
I’m not talking about losing weight, either. I’m talking about the other aspects of our lives. (Sure, weight loss too.) Did you spend too much time on your phone? Did you make time for Sabbath Rest like God commands? Did you work too much? Play too little?
We all have something we did in the last year that we aren’t happy about. We all have goals we’d wanted to achieve that didn’t happen. A new year is a great time to start over. But something that I’ve learned in recent years is that starting over doesn’t have to mean from scratch. Because most of the problems I experience in life aren’t connected to what I lack; my problems usually stem from mismanaging what I already have.
There’s a very stained-glass kind of word in the Bible: Stewardship. If you’re not a fan of high fantasy or regency romance, that word may seem even more alien than normal, but if you’re familiar with the Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R. Tolkein or some of the Jane Austen novels, you may understand the connotation.
A steward is a manager who can be entrusted with the responsibilities of running an estate or even a country in the absence of the king or the master. The steward is basically the boss when the King/Master isn’t around. They have all the authority. They have all the power. They have all the status. And, yes, they have all the responsibility to manage the King/Master’s estate exactly the way the King/Master would have.
I am a steward. So are you. God has entrusted many things to our care and tending, and He expects us to manage those gifts in a certain way. And I can testify that most of the challenges and obstacles I have faced in my life have come from me not stewarding my resources in a godly way.
So that’s what we’re going to study in this first month of 2024: Stewardship. We’re going to take an honest look at what God expects from us as His stewards, because He’s given us so much. But what if He wants to give us more? (He does, by the way. Spoiler alert.)
For the first week, we’re going to focus on what a steward is and what you even have in your life that you can be a steward of.
Your Possessions (1 Kings 17:13)
Your Calling (Jonah 1:1-3)
Nature (Genesis 1:28)
Your Spiritual Gifts (1 Peter 4:10)
Your Goals (John 4:4)
And for our memory verse this week, I felt led to Romans for some hard-hitting truth. The verse to memorize this week is Romans 4:12.
Is there anything scarier than that thought? To have to stand before God and explain my reasoning and my motivation for the choices I’ve made in my life?
Don’t misunderstand. Giving an account of your choices and actions throughout your life isn’t what saves you. Not at all. Many people hear about the Judgment Throne of God and feel instant terror and shame and guilt at the thought of having to rip open all of the scar tissue from our sin and our failure.
But I don’t believe that’s how it’s going to work for those who believe in Jesus. For Christ-followers, there is no condemnation. There is no guilt. There is only salvation, eternal life, and the unfailing love of God.
But that doesn’t mean we won’t have to account for the choices we’ve made, because all of our choices have consequences. Our eternal life, our salvation, isn’t at stake in this. But what you’re able to give back to God is. When you stand before Jesus at the end of time, what have you done with the time He gave you that is eternal and lasting? What investments did you make that will allow you to present the results to Him?
He won’t love you any less if you don’t have anything. But what joy will there be when we can look Jesus in the eye and give Him all that we have done for Him!
I think the sweetest words we’ll ever hear are “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” And each of us can experience that if we choose to steward well what God has given us.
Love you all and praying for you as you tackle this first week of a brand new year.
Amy
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