The Steward's Foreordained Work

"You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every mment was laid out before a single day had passed.  Ps. 139:10 NLT 


Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.  Jer. 1:5  NLT  


For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Eph. 2:10

Eternity stretches before us, we are engulfed in it, and we came out of it with purpose and mission.  These are big truths to steward.  When I consider that the Steward is enwrapped in eternity, it changes the way I perceive what is given me and what is required of me.  From eternity the Master has been involved in Kingdom work within and without His creation.  And we are a small part of that work of Kingdom building as we seek to be on mission with Him.

I suspect that most of the time, I was unaware of that as I was about building a life, creating a "me", designing my life, and working on my marriage, family and personal skill sets.  As I developed a grasp of the Word, I began to recognize that life is more than simply putting things together "down here" with an eye to bringing God glory.

Giving everything over to the Master as owner and living under his direction according to the Word, brought new light on my purpose of existence.  "Ordained from before the foundation of the world" is a head trip to be sure and yet my spirit recognizes it's truth.  It causes me to bow before the wisdom and commandments of the Master with new humility.

"Who is man that thou art mindful of him?" and a Steward that would be involved in the building of an eternal kingdom using the tools and substance given by the Builder.  In my little part of the world, with my little hands, heart and mind, God is working His Plan.

The Steward in the Light of Eternity

The word, eternity, arrested my attention this morning.  The Scripture says that God has put eternity in our hearts...not in our minds.  Deep within us all is this nagging reality that there exists another world we are related to and that this life is definitely connected to it.  What happens here does not stay here, but effects the life to come.

A steward's lifestyle is impossible without this reality uppermost in both heart and mind.  The steward recognizes that building a life of eternal significance will only occur through operating in eternal truths as found in the Eternal Word.  So when things are not going according to expectations, I face the challenge of believing the Word, rechecking motivation and understanding, and returning to the place of rest and trust.  Doing the Master's work the Master's way is often difficult because it seems antithetical to the world's methods of success.

Personally, I like to blame, criticize, and go into self-pity.  Every time this opportunity arises it is because I cannot account for setbacks and roadblocks.  The Master is patiently working with my concepts of time and wisdom in teaching me to see things from the eternal perspective.  Today, this word, eternity, set my feet back on solid ground and is allowing me to reconsider why I am trying to push things that won't budge, bully through things that I have no control over, and cry about my own inadequacies.

The Lord Master will get His work done through me when I finally give Him back the calendar and the clock and recognize that I have all of eternity to consider.  Ain't God grand!

Note on Comments

I apologize that your comments are not available for public viewing.  They are stored on this Blogspot and are difficult to access.  I have opened the system for help on this issue and found many complaints by bloggers about this glitch.  The directions to release them are complex and are not very helpful as evidenced by the frustration of so many writers.  I might have to find a different blogspot when I have a minute of free time....did I say minute?  Forget it....it will require hours the way I work with computers.

I do appreciate the feedback you give me and thank you for the encouragement.  I am curious to know if you consider yourselves stewards as a calling, an assignment or a destiny in any way? Stewardship has taken a more defined lifestyle/calling as I have begun this project of rebuilding the Blessing House and directing all that I own into this adventure.  Writing this blog gives me a voice for myself as I work out the thought processes I am going through.

I have been a Christian, a teacher, a pastor, a leader and developer of lots of new ideas and ministries.  But, this concept of being a steward and owning nothing brings a new reality of heaven, a new reality of my relationship with God and a new recognition of the world system.

I heard once that one should set your goals high for the "person you will become in meeting the goal".  The goal is less important than the changes that have to happen within yourself.  It does seem that God works that way with dreams.  As this dream of a new BH as a legacy takes physical shape, I have never been so challenged to live by faith - the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  I am learning a lot about the ancient ways of Scripture through the lenses of the life of the Steward.  This is what I am trying to put into words for those who are like minded or want to follow.

The Steward is Organically Related to the Master

This theme of relationship continues as I come to grips with the Master who lived in the earth as a Steward and had to operate in the abiding principle that He taught  us in John 15.  Only as He lived, abided, internally allowed the Word into His heart as the creeds of His life was He able to live without self doubts, without letting the words of others direct his thinking, and stay on course in obedience to His assignment.  This is perhaps simplistic in the overview, but I find it helpful in directing my stewardship.

I tend to forget that this relationship is intrinsic and organic and tend to separate myself as the branch from Him as the Vine.  Then I feel withered, used up, ready for the dry wood pile and fruitless.  "Abide in my love just as I abided in the Father's love."  It is that love that removes all doubts and sweeps away the fog.

The Master lives within the Steward to direct His fruit producing ability.  A machine does work.  Only Life can bear fruit.  Work implies effort and labor; the essential idea of fruit is that it is the silent, natural, restful produce of our inner life.  So how does the Steward operate?

 I recognize that this life philosophy of fruit-bearing must be put to work.  Labor pains brings forth life and so I should expect that I will need to push and feel pain as new life is born...new muscle, new projects, new attitudes, new exploits.  So, I confess to the Master the truth of where I am and my inability to produce fruit on my own.  Confident that the Master hears my prayer and that help will be given because He loves me, I go to work.

 Recognizing my own shortcomings and asking for power to do better next time, I am neither passive nor self-reliant.  I do rest awhile and begin again.  Rest awhile and begin again as new Life flows  as the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.  The organic life of the Steward is not in words and beliefs only, but in fruit-producing labor.  Faith without works is dead.  As the statement I placed on my refrigerator for many years reminded me

"They might believe what you say, but they will always believe what you do."  True for Jesus, the Master Steward and true for me the Master's Steward.

The Tricky Sides of Stewardship

Today I am reminded that the work of stewardship is not solely mine.  I am reminded because the cords of anxiety and fear want to entangle my thinking that I "have to do it right, be perfect, and not make errors because I am handling the Lord's gifts.  It is easy to think that stewardship is my work given back to Him for all He has done for me.  Tricky isn't it.  Stewardship is a relationship of trust and expectation of divine enablement first, right?   I want to make it something I do for the Lord instead of with the Lord.  But, in its most subtle temptation....it is something He and I do together.  Can you hear the pride in even that?

When I get into states of anxiety about decisions and direction, I know I have taken this on as my work. I have found it easy to let go of my ownership of the "goods and property" only now discover that it is more difficult to give over the "work" to his ownership.  I am so afraid that it won't be good enough or that I will look foolish or that I will make a mistake.  I have full recognition that I am not skilled, gifted or educated in certain areas  and yet hold myself accountable for them.

Now this is the kicker.
 The Master reminds me humility and honesty are requisite for the Steward whom He has made to be "needy of others....besides needy of Himself".  I hate that word, "needy" which tells me a whole lot about myself as a "prideful steward" who finds it difficult to say to others, I can't do this and I need help.  I prefer divine enablement - not "human help".

O Lord, save me from myself!

A Steward's Prayer

Let not the vigour and freshness of the morning, or the glow of good health, or the present prosperity of my undertakings, deceive me into a false reliance upon my own strength.  


All these good gifts have come to me from Thee.  They were Thine to give and they are Thine also to curtail.  They are not mine to keep; I do but hold them in trust; and only in continued dependence upon Thee, the Giver, can they be worthily enjoyed.


Let me then put back into Thine hand all that Thou has given me, rededicating to Thy service all the powers of my mind and body, all my worldly goods, all my influence with other men.  All these, O Father, are Thine to use as Thou wilt.  All these are Thine, O Christ.  All these are Thine, O holy Spirit.  Speak Thou in my words today, think in my thoughts and work in all my deeds.  And seeing that it is Thy gracious will to make use even of such weak human instruments in the fulfillment  of Thy mighty purpose for the world, let my life today be the channel through which some little portion of Thy divine love and pity may reach the lives that are nearest to my own.


O God, give me grace, so far as in me lies, to serve in Thy Holy Name.  Amen

(This is a portion of prayer from my favorite prayer book, A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie)

The Steward's "muddlings" of the heart.

As I  write about the heart of the Steward, I am examining my own.  Seeking to peer into its chambers and discover what makes it throb with life or become sluggish and heavy, I desire to put feelings and decisions and thoughts into form that speaks truthfully.  Trafficking in unfelt truth is an occupational hazard for a pastor or teacher who presents things she knows nothing about.  To commend to others a life I have never lived or pose as a tour guide to territory on which I have never set foot would be both foolish and heartless.

I call these posts, "musings" - but perhaps a better word is "muddlings" because I am always surprised at what I find within my own inner sanctum.  I believe the heart is where the creeds are stored....those belief systems that have ruled our lives from hidden quarters.  These are hard pack fields that need "harrowing" experiences to dig down with a three pronged hoe so that the soil can be prepared for new seed.  Stepping out and risking new ventures will do that and I am sensing that the Lord Master is more interested in this process than He is in building the house.

My experiences with building this new Blessing House has exposed both hard packed aggregate rock  and swamps of muddy waters when it comes to faith.  This has surprised me, a woman of faith who has learned to live by faith in the Word of God against many odds.  But, now I recognize there is much more to learn about trusting God with things unseen.  I continue to struggle with "seeing" how God is going to provide and, therefore, carry the burden in sleepless nights.  But, each day I am renewed to take the next step casting the care of this project over on Him.

I am freshly thrilled at the thought that a mustard seed of faith has enough power to move mountains when it is spoken - mountains that lie without and within the heart.  So, it is my confession today that God has planted more than enough seed within my heart to break up the ground of my prideful and stubborn being and create the soil of a fruitbearing life.