How To Be A Good Steward
by Olga Hermans
There is something about it to make the most of every moment that is given to us and every opportunity that is brought before us. If we really seek to discover the life we were born to live and ignite it with passion, then we need to do that or else so much time is wasted.
We need to be able to make good choices if we want to be a good steward of our own heart which will lead us in the right direction. Wise choices will watch over you. Pro 2:11; did you know that? If we desire to receive the fullness of the blessings of God so that we can be a greater blessing to others, we must make a commitment to invest the time and energy it takes to develop ourselves.
Maybe you say: “I want to do that, but how do I do that?” I am not talking about developing your talents and your gifts, although that is a good thing to do. But when you really desire to develop yourself, you need to put forth the effort to increase yourself on the inside so you can be on the outside all that God has called you to be.
Maybe this is a completely new concept for you and maybe not, but I like to encourage you to give it some thought. Expanding your inner capacity is very, very important. Let me give you an illustration.
Imagine you had a nice big (40 ounce) pitcher of water and you wanted to pour it all into an eight-ounce glass. That wouldn’t work, would it? You can go ahead and try it anyway, but we all know what would happen, right? Most of the water would spill out and go to waste.
To pour the full amount of the pitcher, you need to get a bigger glass. You need to increase the size of the receiving object. The same is true in the realm of the spirit. For God to transfer to us and through us all the wisdom, power and blessing that belongs to us through Jesus, He needs us to be bigger receivers. He needs us to expand our heart.
To do that, we must make a serious commitment to our own spiritual growth and development. We must become, above all, good stewards of our hearts.
We can learn a lot from Joshua in the Old Testament; he once stood with the wilderness behind him and the Promised Land in front of him and heard the Lord say, “Arise…go over…you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them.” Joshua 1:2
Just like Joshua, we are standing on the edge of the Promised Land. All God’s promises are “yes and amen”; they are our inheritance because of what Jesus has done for us. It would be a good choice for us to do the same what Joshua did, because he took the instructions that God had given him quite seriously.
One thing that I admire so much on Joshua and that worked for him was that when he was under pressure; he didn’t spend less time with the Lord, but more. This is something we all need to learn. If we want to win our battles, we must come to the realization that we can only win them with the Word.
Joshua knew that he depended completely on God, that he couldn’t go to battle in his own strength. He knew that he needed the power of God in his life. He knew, he had to learn how to think like God, talk like God and act like God. He knew that the only place to find the wisdom that he so desperately needed was in the Word of God.
So, if we want to inherit our Promised Land, we need to press into the King of the Kingdom and those other things will be given to us. We need to spend time in His presence and get serious, very serious about the Word of God.
As wise stewards of our hearts, we must watch out not to slip into a state of complacency where God’s Word is concerned. We must be very aware of the fact that mediating on the Word day and night is what prepares us to prosper and increase.
God’s Word is to our spirits what food is to our bodies. It strengthens and nourishes us and it causes us to grow. If we feed our physical body junk food by eating cakes and starbucks coffee or McDonalds instead of vegetables, fruits and other nutritious foods, we will get weaker and weaker. Our bodies will start to fail us. That is an undeniable fact and we all know it.
But here is another undeniable fact that we sometimes overlook. If we feed our spirits on facebook or Twitter updates, magazines, news broadcast, and other superficial stuff more than we read the Word of God, the same thing will happen. Our inner man will start to waste away. Even if we have been spiritually strong in the past, we will become spiritual weaklings, unable to lay hold of the inheritance that God has promised us.
Have you ever wondered how Christians can attend church for 35 years and yet never changed? It is because of non-productive patterns in their lives. They only ate junk food and their bible reading was very irregular, rare and disconnected from God.
You don’t want to stay stagnant do you? You don’t want to be dissatisfied and miss out on the good things that God wants to give to you. Don’t make that mistake; you need to get enlarged on the inside. You need to get strong in the Lord and in the power of His might to overcome every obstacle that comes your way.
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Thanks Olga for this uplifting message. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians “When you received from us the word of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” I believe that the true transformation from the world and renewing of the spirit man comes from reading, understanding and adhering to the word of God. It is, however, undermined by some Christians and substituted for the wonderful sermons we hear in church (which is good too but just not enough).
Thank you for your comment Oma; I am with you that some Christians undermine the fact to be totally immersed in the Word of God and to be totally transformed. You got it! We need to preach to ourselves about the revelations that God gives us.
Olga…thank you for this aritcle. A great reminder to press into God’ Word for expansion…enlarge my capacity for all that you have for me Lord…I just love the Word of God….Blessings to you!
I know that you love the Word of God Penny, which is awesome! Blessings to you!
Olga, you’ve always been a blessing to me with your post. this particular one on good shepherding of our own selves is awesome!
God bless you richly!
Glory to God that I can be a blessing to you Jerome; thank you for your comment.
Love this Olga! Great reminder to put God first in our hearts and minds!
Thanks Carolyn!!
Thanks Olga for yet another uplifting message 🙂
Thanks Olga for a very inspiring post – it’s so true that we have to get truly in touch with our heart’s centre rather than get distracted by all of the shiny things that distract and detract from a deep meaningful connection.
Olga ~ another great post! I especially like where you talk about our hearts becoming bigger receivers and comparing eating McDonald’s vs veggies to reading & watching junk vs reading and soaking in the Word of God… something we can ALL use a little more of!
It’s true you get out of it what you put in it.since i am retired for about 10 years i spend about 8 hours every day in the word of god and beleieve me he will commucate with you.i have had some wonderful times with the lord because my vessel can hold it very good sermon to teach on.
Focusing on building ourselves from the inside is a great message. The more you work on yourself, the closer you get to being the true you. Can’t imagine a better way to find inner peace.
He should always come first, shouldn’t he? Great reminder for us all.
What a powerful message Olga. I’ve never heard the principle of stewardship applied to the heart before. I received so much from this, and a few of my toes were indeed stepped on, lol. Thanks so much for this important lesson and reminder.
Great post Olga. Thanks for sharing!
Olga, thank you for such a positive message filled with wisdom. Being open to spiritual change is a gift to everyone.
Great question asked Olga :Have you ever wondered how Christians can attend church for 35 years and yet never changed? Some of us find ourselves, getting recommitted during a revival and maybe another recommitting event in another revival meeting. Guess the path is narrow and it demands focus, discipline and surrender of self.
Right on Claudia!!
Great to know the things that keep us so stressed and what we can do NOT to be so stressed. There are so many things going on around us during the day, that we start thinking there it’s nothing we can do about it, but we can Thank you so much for giving us some clear insight on this topic, I appreciate it a lot.
Inspiring message as always Olga! I like your analogy about trying to pour 40 ounces of water into an 8 ounce glass. It is always good for us to expand our hearts, minds and spirit to take in all that life has to offer.