Stewards of God’s Gifts

In Jesus’s parable of the talents, he talks about a man going on a journey.  He entrusted to one servant five talents, to another servant two talents and to another servant one talent.  The one who received five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.  The servant who had two talents also invested the talents and made two talents more.  But the servant who only received one talent “went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.”

We discover in this parable that the amount is not what is important.  God is just as concerned about the attitude of the believer making $12,000 a year as he is about the attitude of the believer making $120,000 a year.  The servant who was given five talents, and the servant given two talents were ultimately told, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  God didn’t care about the amount.  But God did care about the attitude.

Many people say that they cannot give, because they don’t have enough.  They say things like, “God doesn’t expect me to give.”  But they don’t get it.  The amount they have isn’t important.  It is their faithfulness with the amount they do have.  If we are faithful with what we have (and it may be little or much), God will reward us on how we managed it – whether $120.00 a week or $12,000 a week.

Of the three servants only one wasn’t ultimately told “Well done” – the one who took what he had and hid it, held on to it, and didn’t pass it on.  (It was the servant who wasn’t faithful with the small amount that God had given him).  Some of us believe because we don’t have much that God doesn’t expect us to give and put Him first in every area of our lives.  May we NEVER have that thought!  The servant who ultimately got banished ONLY had one talent.  So, if we make $200 a week or $20,000 a week, God wants us to be responsible for it.  He wants us to use what He has given us to the best of our ability for His glory!!