YOU ARE TRUSTED!

"...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

1 Pet.2:5

The past couple of Sundays, we have touched on not only the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, but the fact that He did it for us because when we follow Him He considers us precious. My mother long before she passed away, gave me her father's watch. It was precious to her and she in turn entrusted it to me for safe keeping and to treasure.  And, I have and do.   In turn, this got me to thinking about what God has entrusted to you and I.

God entrusted man with the keeping  the Garden in Genesis, He entrusted man with the Law in Old Testament Days. David says,   "I long for your salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight." Psa 119:174. It was entrusted to the people for keeping and when it was not followed and was broken, the people suffered the consequences for abusing what God had entrusted as precious. For you and I today, we need to know that God has entrusted us with several things. 

1. God has entrusted us with the keeping of our souls. In Mt.12:35 Jesus teaches that it is from the heart that flow the issues of life.  James 1:14,15 warns us of abusing this privilege that God has given us. It is a serious thing to maintain our souls and many neglect matters of the spirit altogether. I have to examine my spirit daily (Rom.12) to make sure that it remains pure and cleanse it when it becomes impure (Mk.16:15,16; 1 Jn.1:9).
2. God has entrusted you and I with keeping His word.  I have to examine God's word regularly (Jn.5:39; 2 Tm.2:15, Jas.1:25) to see and know what God likes and doesn't like. Paul's statement to Timothy in 2 Tm.2:15 is to give every effort that I have to make sure that I keep myself approved of God and that I am the type of workman that God describes in His word. 
3. God has entrusted you and I as Christians with doing all that we can to encourage others who become Christians to more love and faithfulness (Heb.11:24).  He has entrusted you and I as Christians to encourage others who are not Christians to come to Christ so that they can change (Mt.11:28-30). We have been taught by history, by ecclesiastical "authorities," by tradition that the world is change so that it can come to us. This is not what Jesus teaches. Jesus teaches that we should invite the world to come be part of us so that the He can change them.   

Worry and the cares of the world can drown these. We worry about making a living, raising a family, and getting through a day - often to the neglect of our souls. We spend less time getting to know God and spending time with God and living in His word. Encouraging those in God's house becomes difficult because in spending less time around them because I am caught up in the world, I don't know them - can't encourage them, and they can't encourage me.  My time in encouraging others who want to become Christians becomes minimal because I have become entangled in the world, to the neglect of God and His family. This said, I'm not suggesting we become monastical and lose touch with the world altogether. But we MUST learn to balance the two, and give God's will the priority it deserves.

Worry is practical atheism, because it’s acting like you don’t have a Father in Heaven who loves you and who can be trusted, acting like you’re a spiritual orphan. Paul stated, "which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. (2 Tim 1:12)."

Are you guarding what God has entrusted to YOU? Are you being what God wants you to be? Fortunately, our salvation is based on Christ keeping his promise and taking care of what we’ve committed to Him - our souls. Maybe it is time you let go of what is holding you back and become what God is calling you to be. 

Jim