A gift to steward
A gift to steward
Peter sets every believer's gifting in the language of stewardship. As each has received a gift, he writes, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of the grace of God in its various forms. A gift is not a possession to be hoarded or merely enjoyed; it is a trust, given to be invested, something we will answer for.
Your spiritual pathway is exactly such a trust. The way God wired you to come near him is not only for your own enjoyment of God; it is a grace to be stewarded for the good of others. The naturalist can lead others into the cathedral of creation; the intellectual can ground the wavering with truth; the enthusiast can ignite a cold room; the caregiver can show a whole church where Christ is hiding. Your pathway has something to give.
And stewardship cuts the other way too. A gift can be buried, neglected, left unused — and a pathway, treated carelessly, can wither. To say this is just how I am wired and then coast on it, never developing it, never offering it, is to bury the trust. The good steward does not merely possess the gift; they cultivate it and spend it for others, and one day give an account of what they did with the grace they were given.
“According as each has received a gift, be ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the grace of God in its various forms.”
— Peter, to the scattered church — 1 Peter 4:10 (WEB)
Steward your pathway as a trust — cultivating it and spending it to help others meet God — rather than merely enjoying it or burying it.
“Having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, let us use them.”
We treat our pathway as a private comfort and stop there, or use the language of temperament to coast, making 'that's just not my gift' a permanent exemption from growth and service. The interior work is to hold the pathway as stewardship — a grace given to be invested for others and an account to be rendered — so that we both develop it and give it away rather than hoard, neglect, or bury it.
This week, use your pathway to serve someone: lead another into the way you meet God, or offer what your temperament uniquely sees. And name one place you have coasted on 'that's not my gift,' and stretch there instead.
It is easy to hoard your pathway as private comfort, and easier still to use temperament as a permanent excuse to coast and never stretch. But the grace God gives is given to be invested, not buried — and a pathway cultivated and spent for others multiplies his grace through a whole community.
It is easy to treat your pathway as a private comfort — the way you personally enjoy God — and stop there. Peter will not let us. The grace God gives is given to be stewarded, invested, spent for others, not merely savored alone. The way you most naturally meet God is also a way you are meant to help others meet him.
And there is a quieter danger: using the language of temperament as an excuse to coast. That's just not my gift becomes a permanent exemption, a reason never to grow, never to stretch, never to serve outside the comfortable lane. But a buried gift is a squandered trust. The pathway is yours to cultivate and to give away, not to sit on. Are you stewarding the way God wired you — developing it, offering it for others — or merely enjoying it, or burying it altogether?
- Do I treat my pathway only as a private comfort?
- Where have I used 'that's not my gift' as an excuse to coast?
- How could I steward my way of meeting God for the good of others?
Lord, you gave me my pathway as a trust, not just a comfort. Keep me from hoarding it, coasting on it, or burying it. Help me cultivate the way you wired me and spend it for others, a good steward of your grace. Amen.