Spiritual endowments are core gifts that are given by God. Every Christian is endowed with one spirit or the other. Talents and gifts are given to use or to make profits for God, not to dump or bury them. God frowns at the unproductive servants.
Time is another gift that God wants us to master and take notice of how we use our time. It is a precious gift and it must be used wisely. Do you know that you will give an account of how you use your time? Lastly here is the mission. The main reason why we are made and accepted into the kingdom is mission and evangelism.
We are to impact more lives and win souls. God will ask the number of souls to become saved through each of us. You can read more on the Bible search page of the site.
1. STEWARDSHIP OF SPIRITUAL ENDOWMENTS
Read James 1: 17
Talent might be either silver or gold, and the value varied according to the standard but is probably to be taken on the Phoenician. It may be in the form of money given to someone to trade or any other valuables given to a person to do business.
What the Bible says about talent.
Talent has assumed a global figurative usage from Jesus’ parable in Mathew 25: 14-30. Talent is commonly used to represent spiritual endowments or divine investments in one’s life. These may include spiritual gifts, which are the capacity, power, aptitude, skill, or ability that are divinely deposited into one’s life.
Your talents/gifts are for the purpose.
Whatever one’s gift or talent is, its purpose is to be invested in other people’s lives. If you are gifted you are to monitor other believers. The measure or the degree of your giftedness does not matter to God and His program.
What matters to Him is how faithful you are in the way you are putting into use the little or big measure of the divine endowments that are deposited into your life. The expectation of the Giver of the endowment is productivity. God expects that the receiver of any endowment will invest it or trade with it by the way he usHe it to bring glory to Him.
Lesson
Your talent is appreciated and develops as you use it. Waste no time. Use what God has given to you. Don’t envy other people’s talent.
Prayer
Pray that God will give you the grace to use your God-given talents.
2. STEWARDSHIP OF TIME
Read Ecclesiastes 3: 1
Ben Franklin said, “Do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.” Time is a dimension in which events can be ordered from the past. Nations of the world measure time differently.
What is the basis of time?
The basis of the Hebrew measurement of time was the day and the lunar mouth, as with the Semites generally. Great advances in accurate time-keeping were made by Galileo Galilei and especially Christian Huygens with the invention of pendulum-driven clocks.
Whereas the Western world measured time with greater precision through the use of clocks, Africans in the olden days used to use the position of the sun to measure time. Regardless of where one is in the globe, the obvious is that the number of hours in America is the same in Nigeria and any other part of the world.
Jesus said my father works and I work also.
Mindful of the sacredness of time, God’s people must make the best use of time. One of the ways to take advantage of the time is to plan for any undertaken. I learned a lot from my spouse. I have learned the necessity of making gradual preparations ahead.
I know that hasty preparation usually leads to embarrassment. I travelled and got to my destination and discovered that I did not take my belt, sponge, brush, or shaving stick. I must prepare for any important journey to avoid embarrassment, shame, and untold hardship.
How procrastination is dangerous.
Don’t procrastinate. Note what Denis Waitley says about time: “Time is an equal opportunity employer. Every human being has the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent minutes.
Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. Many people procrastinate. They always unnecessarily shift what they are supposed to do today till tomorrow .”Do you know that God has a reason for setting time for the day and the night? Stop time wasting. Work with time because you will give an account of how you use your time.
Lesson
Keep time in all your engagements. Don’t use God’s time for other engagements. Be in the church or before God at the agreed date and time.
Prayer
God gives me the grace to be a good steward of time. I recover the good things I have wasted in the past in Jesus’ name.
3. STEWARDSHIP AND MISSION
Read (Genesis 12: 12 NIV)
Mission support is often a product of good stewardship. Giving churches are going and growing churches. Mission and stewardship are inseparable.
What is the life of a missionary?
The life of a missionary which is the same as the life of an ambassador who is representing God on earth must be lived with the consciousness that whosoever one is and whatever one does would be mounted for. This is because they are privileges and responsibilities that one would give their accounts to God who is the right owner.
This was evident in the life of Abraham. A missionary and a faithful Steward. One of the good stewards in the Old Testament is Abraham. He was called to showcase what a life of sincere relationship with God should look like.
How Abraham was a steward and a missionary.
Abraham was the first missionary mentioned in the Bible. God called him out of Ur and into a new place. It became imperative for him to depend on God’s provision. His life is a model for our own story of learning to trust God.
As his faith increases, God entrusts resources to him, not for his good, but so that all nations would be blessed through him. He lived his entire life as a steward and missionary.
Missionary’s call and endeavor are considered a “responsibility”, a familiar word in Christian stewardship. You are representing God where you work. You are His representative to your family and your neighbourhood. You are a steward representing Christ.
Lesson
Dedicate all you are and have to God. This is all the return you can make Him. Volunteer to meet the needs of a stranger this week.
Prayer
O Lord, make me a weapon for evangelism. The power and grace for mission and soul-winning, give them to me in Jesus’ name.
