Take Responsibility

I was asked recently what one of the most frustrating things about serving and leading within God’s Church is. This really wasn't a hard question for me to answer as this frustration often keeps me awake at night, praying that God will work to resolve this struggle I sense. The frustration revolves around the concept of people struggling to take personal responsibility for their own spiritual growth and having difficulty desire to take responsibility for all that God has given to us. Jesus speaks specifically to this issue in Matthew 25:14-30. Take a moment right now to read through this scripture by clicking on the link attached to the aforementioned scripture address.
As I read this scripture the following points jump out and offer motivation and inspiration for us to take responsibility for our spiritual growth. Don’t just read through these points below, reflect and pray through them, asking God to help you better steward the responsibility that you have been given!

1) God has entrusted us with something so valuable! As people created in God’s image, God has invested in us something very significant. In this parable, Jesus gives three people a number of different 'talents'. A talent is equivalent to 20 years wages, so in our American culture that would equate to around $1,000,000! Imagine being given $1,000,000, or $5,000,000 … it is a significant, valuable trust! What our Master has given to you is something more valuable than these amounts – you have been given the keys to the kingdom, the ability and opportunity to shape where people spend their eternity, and the power of the Holy Spirit. These are sacred trusts!

2) God expects us to invest what he has given us! Two of the servants were faithful in doing this and were rewarded, one didn’t... and wasn’t. The investment we are to make with what God has given us is to be made in the only thing from this earth that can travel into eternity with us – people! The love, grace, power, and truth that God has given to us must be invested in the lives of others.

3) God wants us to have an accurate picture of him so that our response to him can be accurate. We see in verse 24 that the lazy servant has an inaccurate picture of his master. He says that he’s a “hard man” and therefore wanted to play it safe. His inaccurate picture of his master led to an inaccurate response. It is the same way with us and God. Unfortunately the view of God we have is often shaped by cultural and personal inaccuracies, rather than the revelation of God found in the Bible. In contrast, the faithful servants were more than willing to ask God to examine them and what they had given themselves to... because they had responded accurately to who they understood God to be.

4) God waits in heaven wanting to celebrate what we’ve done. Both faithful servants hear the incredibly humbling words from God himself, “Well done, good and faithful servant". I think Jesus loves to say those words! He loves to reward those who earn them with greater responsibility and he wants us to share his happiness. This scripture also tells us though that, reluctantly, God can’t always say these words about our behavior and faithfulness as our actions separate us from him. He always loves you, but he wants to celebrate you as well. Are you living in a such a way that he can?

I think that a big part of being responsible means understand the following statements and the implications of them. How are you doing in understanding and applying these statements?

Be Faithful.