Steward: a person who manages another's property; one who administers anything as the agent of another.
What do you think of when you think of stewardship? Most of us think of our money right off the bat.
You might also think of your other possessions-your home, your car, your clothing.
We think of stewarding the earth’s natural resources. We are stewards of our time, our talents, and our treasure. All of these things are correct and good. But by far the most precious thing that God has entrusted us to steward is His grace.
What is Grace?
Here’s my favorite definition of grace: God’s unmerited, active goodness towards us. His grace shows up in our salvation, in our enlightenment, in the power to go through trials and hard times - in a million different ways. And here’s the thing I can’t get over: He expresses that grace to others through us. He calls us stewards of His grace.
Paul's Stewardship
In Ephesians 3:2 Paul says,
“Surely you have heard about the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you...”
Do you see how this grace that was given to Paul was not for his own benefit, but for the benefit of someone else? Paul was entrusted with being the vehicle through whom God would dispense His grace to other people. I believe that’s why when Paul always says “grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ” in the greetings of his letters, his meaning being that God wanted the readers to receive His grace and peace, and they were intended to receive it through Paul’s ministry. God gave the grace that He wanted people to receive to Paul, and Paul administered that grace through his encounters with them.
You and I Are Stewards As Well
And lest you think that was true of just the Apostle Paul, look at 1 Peter 4:10:
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,
as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
This means that when I’m teaching, I’m remembering that God wants to give grace to my students. God wants to give unmerited, active goodness in the form of wisdom and insight into His word, and as I teach, He wants to do that through me. It's not just me doing my thing, it's actually God working through me. What a thought! What a privilege! What form of grace has the Lord given into your hands to steward? How are you administering His grace to others?
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