God has entrusted all of us with gifts and He wants us to be good stewards of all that He’s given. Whether or not we’re good stewards, He will ask for an accounting of our stewardship.
- What has God entrusted to you?
- Are you being faithful to steward it well?
- Are you faithfully growing the skills God has invested in you?
- Are you making the most of every opportunity God has given you?
Being faithful to grow as worship leaders and musical servants doesn’t mean we all start in the same place or are expected to make the same progress. We can’t all be Chris Tomlin or Matt Redman. And God doesn’t want us to be! Our God richly and variously entrusts His people with gifts and opportunities which are to be stewarded for His glory.
In His flawless wisdom, He gifts each of us uniquely. He knows precisely what He wants to do in and through each of us and He has the wisdom and power to accomplish His greatness through His abilities invested in us. God delights in using ordinary people to accomplish His extraordinary greatness.
As we consider what God has entrusted to us, we must first remember that He has given us Himself, the greatest gift of inestimable value. He has given us salvation through Jesus Christ. What grace we have received in our adoption as sons and daughters by the One who made us! What a privilege to belong to God and be entrusted with gifts and resources for building His Kingdom. Our Father invites us to thankfully respond to His kindness and generosity by being diligent to grow.
Growing in excellence is a lifelong sojourn of progress, reformation and change. Whoever you are, you have room to grow and excel. Here are three practical and effectual ways you can be faithful to grow:
Invest in your relationship with God
There’s nothing more worthy of investing in than your relationship with God. INVEST YOUR TIME HERE. Study God’s Word and commune with Him daily in prayer and times of silence. Endeavor to enjoy the Lord by thankfully partaking of His bounty as you work, eat, rest and play. Seek the Lord while He may be found and know that as you seek Him He will be found by you. That’s His promise to all who seek Him!
Blessed are those who . . . delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never prosper in the work He’s given them to do. (Psalm 1:1-3)
Whatever and wherever you sow will grow. If you delight in the Lord and faithfully sow into your relationship with Him, you’ll be fruitful in each season and prosper in the work He’s given you to do.
Practice, practice, practice
Work on strengthening your weaknesses. There’s a way to grow in greater skill without being discouraged by your present skill level. Be encouraged that as you are faithful to practice, you will grow in your skills and strengthen your weaknesses. Growth requires deliberate practice that focuses on areas of weakness. This type of practice involves plain, old, boring, repetitive hard work.
Consider that to attain expert level in anything requires at least 10,000 hours of practice. This is equal to four hours a day every day for seven years. We may not all be aiming for the expert level, but we all have room to grow, so we all need to practice.
Do the hard work when no one is watching. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.
Look for opportunities to serve in ways that will stretch you.
Has God placed a service opportunity before you that isn’t something you’re entirely comfortable doing, or isn’t something you could easily do? Be eager to serve in ways that require learning and leaning heavily on the Holy Spirit.We should be encouraged by Jesus’ commendation of industrious, wise investors portrayed in the Scriptures. Be faithful to steward the small measures and He will entrust you with greater measures.
God demands an accounting of your faithfulness to steward the skills He has given. He’s still seeking faithful stewards for the work to be done in Heaven. Remember that the greatest reward of good stewardship is knowing Jesus and His delight in Your work.
Those who bury God’s investment are seen by God as wicked and slothful. What excuses are you making for not maximizing the opportunities God’s given you to grow?
Finally, we must depend on the reality that only Jesus has perfectly stewarded the work His Father has entrusted to Him. Only Jesus has never squandered any of the wealth God has given Him.
He exhibits perfect obedience and faithful stewardship. And He is our High Priest, our Hope, and the Faithful One who has provided all we need to make much of what God has given us.
Kristen Gilles currently leads worship at Sojourn Community Church and was featured on Sojourn’s album The Water And The Blood: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume Two. Visit Kristen’s blog at mysonginthenight.com. This post was inspired by a sermon titled “Faithful to Grow” recently preached by Bob Kauflin at WorshipGod 2013, a conference hosted by Sovereign Grace Ministries (audio here).