“Supplicants… Stewards"

"Supplicants… Stewards" 

    

     

   We shop at stores, markets, and even online to determine what businesses or people will sell us.  Conversely, we seek God in His Word "that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (I Corinthians 2:12).

   Everything our Lord provides, whether spiritual or physical, comes to us "Paid In Full" by the cost of our Savior's sacrifice on the cross of Calvary.  God could nothing for us where it not for the price of blood remitted by the Lord Jesus Christ.  This includes "life and breath and all things" along with our salvation (Acts 17:25).  Our Heavenly Father made us and redeemed us through Christ to live as His grateful supplicants who require ongoing provision, and as His faithful stewards who use the gifts given for God's glory, as led and enabled by the Holy Spirit.  "Freely ye have received, freely give" commanded the Lord Jesus of His disciples (Matthew 10:8).  Thus, we view ourselves as continually and undeservedly graced with God's goodness, and as seriously and vitally commissioned to do something with the gifts given.  The parable of the talents confirms this truth of our supplicant/steward identity and calling, or as we frequently suggest in these messages, life in Christ involves privileged responsibility (Matthew 25:14-30).

   The more we realize the infinite magnitude of God's generosity as provided through Christ, the more we will respond in gratitude and determination.  "Unsearchable riches" supply for every need of born again believers in Christ, as administered by our Heavenly Father's lovingkindness and perfect wisdom (Ephesians 3:8).  We do well to expect such freely given grace, and to expect that our Heavenly Father will lead us to use the gifts He gives in a manner that honors the Lord Jesus and blesses others.  Again, the includes the spiritual peace and fulfillment of our hearts, and also the natural and physical provisions required during our earthly lives.  All are "Paid In Full" by the blood of Christ, and all are to be received with the realization that gifts given are accompanied by responsibilities commissioned.  We wouldn't want it any other way, and in this day, our Father will provide for us as supplicants, and send us forth "as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (I Peter 4:10).

"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation."

(II Corinthians 5:18)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.

(Ephesians 4:31)