Matthew 25:19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
In the Parable of the Talents, we see where the master entrusted a great deal of money to three individual servants. He did not assign to them equal amounts. He entrusted to each of them the amount he knew they were able to manage.
The master did not GIVE the servants the money, he entrusted it to their care. At that point, the servants became STEWARDS of what the master owned. In today’s world, they could be compared to stock brokers who invest the money of other people and hopefully cause their accounts to grow through the investments they make.
Everything we have belongs to God, even our physical bodies. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16)
We, as physical beings, are living in God’s Temple. Our bodies do not belong to us. We also live in God’s World, eat His food, and enjoy His Creation. Your pet does not belong to you. It is God’s Creation entrusted to you to care for. EVERYTHING created belongs to God. Even your children do not belong to you. God has entrusted them to you for a time.
With this in mind, we can easily come to the understanding that we are not OWNERS of what we have, but STEWARDS of what God owns. Ownership and stewardship are two totally different things. We own NOTHING. God has called us to be stewards of much. Just like the servants in the Parable of the Talents, we will one day have to settle our account with the Master.
In the Parable, two of the servants invested the master’s money and it multiplied. The master was pleased. The third servant buried his talent in the ground, and when the master returned to settle the account, the servant dug up the talent and returned it to the master exactly as he had received it. The master’s response was as follows, “You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.”
And then the master went on to say, “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
We have been made stewards of God’s property. One day we will each give an account. How will the Master respond?
Only the Master can……..turn the tide
Evaluating my investments, Doreen
