Stewards of the Manifold Grace of God

Stewards of the Manifold Grace of God

We have been appointed as stewards. We are to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us, using our pound in the best way possible. God has entrusted different treasures to us.

One of the greatest treasures that God has entrusted to us is time. It is rightly called our time of grace. It is grace that we are alive. We should actually be dead. A true saying is that time is money, and another saying is that time is precious.

Why is time the same as money? Because it can be used to earn money. Why is it precious? Because by using it, I can acquire precious treasures.

Thus we could just as well say: “Time is salvation. Time is life. Time is fullness of the Spirit. Time is brotherly love. Time is heaven on earth.” Because time can be used to gain salvation, to gain life, fullness of the Spirit, and brotherly love—to gain heaven on earth.

Time is essentially the very treasure itself; it is the capital itself. When the Word says, that time [hereafter] is short, and when we realize that this word is truer today than it has been at any time previously, then all of us understand explicitly that we must be more conscious of how valuable time is, so that we do not use it badly or waste it.

It is vital that we, as good stewards, carefully watch over how we use our precious time! It is possible to burn up 10 cents worth of candle (for example) or 1½ cents worth of candle in order to find 1 cent you have lost. That in itself is bad enough and stupid enough! But that isn’t all! In addition, the person has wasted a significant part of one of his precious days!

It is just as possible to be a first-class, faithful steward when it concerns keeping account of a single copper penny, but simultaneously waste hundreds and thousands of them on food, clothing, and household items, even on useless or almost useless things, besides wasting time to the tune of thousands, hundred thousands, millions, and billions of pennies, up to incalculable worth!!!

How satisfied would a merchant be with a cashier who could account for every stamp and small change to the penny but who was missing thousands of kroner? Dear friends, let us make every effort not to be like that person.

For example, how can a person waste time or use it relatively poorly? By being vain with regard to getting everything possible to look nice when it concerns clothing, house, and garden. Order and cleanliness is good, but as we all know, it can easily be overdone, even to the point of insanity. By speaking far too much with people because you are too weak to leave them quickly, leaving the impression that you are not well-bred. By showing an unnecessary interest in the things of this world, by looking at all kinds of things, by inspecting this or that. By reading the newspaper and other less valuable reading material. For example, if you use one hour a day to read the newspaper (which is not so uncommon), that is one eighth or one tenth of a work day, (or in other words, of my active life, of my time of grace), then it is hardly likely that my Lord would approve of it as time well spent. Without a doubt, you can gain by it, but scarcely as much as you could have gained in other ways. You should pay attention to the time even when you sit among friends, engaged in conversation. It is alright as long as it is really worthwhile, but it is important to discern when the conversation begins to ebb or if it becomes needlessly long. There is something that is called “necessary edification.” See Ephesians 4:29. Then it is important to be quick to suggest a time of prayer or to go away and to pray, or to start a good and necessary work, or something else that you clearly understand is more valuable than what you are currently doing. This is how we should conduct ourselves at all times, in all circumstances.

It is not just a question of whether I can get anything at all out of the situation in which I am using my time; on the contrary, it is a question of greater or lesser values. We should choose the greater values over the lesser values whenever we have an opportunity to do so.

We can also unnecessarily spend time sleeping, holidaying, and going for a walk. Let us remind one another of this as long as it is still the time of grace, as long as how we use our time is still very crucial. He who has, to him even more will be given.