Dear You, you're not irreplaceable

By Leo sekoere

Stewardship is one of the greatest precepts in The Kingdom of Heaven. So much so that the bible is full of examples of men and women who failed at stewardship- these were replaced in a flash. There is a great lesson to be learned here, God wants to do a great thing in the area he has placed you but he is not going to use you if you have not taken stewardship seriously.

Here’s a simple definition of ‘stewardship’: The job of taking care of something. Taking care of something means being responsible/accountable. The connotations are preservation, protection and managing it well. A good steward goes the extra mile and treats what is entrusted upon him as his prized possession.

In Matthew 25:14, Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a man travelling into a far country, who calls his servants and delivers goods to them. To one he gives five talents, to another two and to the other one. To every man according to his own ability. See, that which you received from God is just enough for you to handle. God knew that if he trusted you with it you would be able to be responsible; preserving, protecting and managing it to His glory. Verse 15 says after he gave his servants this money, he started on his journey (this shows us how he trusted his servants). After he left, two of his servants doubled the talents they received but the servant who was given one talent just hid his in the ground. When the master returned, he was so impressed with the two who doubled his money that he called them good and faithful. He told them that because they had been faithful over a few things, he would make them rulers over many things, subsequently he invited them into the “joy of their lord”. The servant who hid his talent in the ground was called wicked and lazy and was sent away into outer darkness after his talent had been taken away.

In Ester chapter 1, we also see a Queen who failed to steward her crown. She failed to honor her title as Queen and she was replaced in a flash. Queen Vashti was said to be the most beautiful, that along with the fact that she owned the crown must’ve made her feel irreplaceable. But she wasn’t, no one on this earth is irreplaceable- DON’T EVER GET TOO COMFORTABLE AND PRESUMPTUOUS. There’s a notion called GRACE under which people get things they don’t deserve. There could be someone better than you occupying your position but instead, God opened that door for you, not because there’s something great about you but because of His Grace. You ought to be grateful in your heart, through your words and through your actions.

Speaking of GRACE: in the book of 1 Samuel we read about a young man called Saul and how he started on a desperate journey, looking for his father’s lost donkeys but instead found GRACE. A prophet of God meets him along the way and tells him that he is going to be Israel’s first king. I love his humble and modest response “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak like this to me?” .Here, Saul’s eyes were open to Grace, he knew that he was being given a position he didn’t deserve.

Like many of us, Saul started off humble but once the reality of being a king became alive to him, his head grew too big and he started being autonomous-disregarding the leadership of GOD. 1 Samuel 13:13 says that God sent Samuel to set him right. Samuel told him that he acted foolishly and had not kept the commandment of the Lord therefore God had resolved to replace him with “A man after His own heart”. This “Man after God’s heart” is not someone who was just created seconds before this conversation. He was there all the time but watch how God still gave Saul a chance to lead Israel even though he had a far better option. This is Grace! Verse 14 tells us that the main reason why God took the kingdom away from Saul was because “he did not keep what the Lord committed to his trust”.

In Apostle Paul’s letters to Timothy, He keeps emphasizing on how it is important for the young leader to “guard the deposit” and honor the work of God in his life. Paul must’ve known that when a person stops honoring the things that God has given them, they lose them. 1 Timothy 6:20- Guard what was committed to your trust.

Please understand that if you fail to show God faithfulness over what he has given you, He will not give you more than what you have. You will not get that job you’re eyeing if you fail at being a blessing at your current job. You will not get an increase in your finances if all you do is use money in unwise ways. Be a good steward of your body, health, relationships, money and job- You will see a promotion in these areas.

When bad things happen to Good people

By Leo Sekoere
Mal. 3:1, "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord [adonai], whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the Lord [YHWH] of hosts."

This was a prophecy about John the Baptist, an exciting one I imagine, but years went by without seeing the fulfillment of this prophecy, prophets died and time did not stand still.

Zoom out.....Zoom in to a little town in judea....there's a barren woman called Elizabeth. Time didn't stand still for her too because the bible says she was advanced in years, suggesting to us that she'd had to watch many women experiencing the joys of motherhood while she waited for God to answer her prayer. She was a devout woman, the wife of a priest, from the family of Aaron but she had an issue: She was barren. Some of you know this situation too well, where you're just trying , investing, giving yourself to something that's not yielding desired results. "BUT God I've been faithfully serving you and living righteous, so why am I stagnant?". Sometimes we even question God. I love something about Elizabeth, Nowhere in her story did I read about her giving up on ministry or walking away from a Godly life. She stayed there, faithful as can be.

One day an angel of the Lord appears to her husband and tells him, the wait is over; Elizabeth would soon be able to bear a son. Even he doesn't believe it. Have you ever waited so long for something that deep down in your heart you become convinced that it's not coming? Even though you stay positioned in God there's a strong force within your belief that's constantly reminding you that it's too late to have it.

It's easy to think that God was being unfair to this faithful couple but looking at the story from the outside, I'm starting to see the truth. You see, Elizabeth's womb was a huge part of that prophecy in Malachi 3:1. All this time, God had located her and his divine plan concerning her was set in motion.God desired the first child that came out of Elizabeth's womb to be "The One" and so timing had to be right. God works in perfect timing, remember Genesis 18:10,14 and 2Kings4:16? Elizabeth later bore a son, "The son" who would prepare the way for "The Son of God"'. So you see, it was for a good course that she waited....in her was a seed that would change the course of the world for ever . John the Baptist was that son and today we still talk about him.

Dear Barren Child of God.
Your delay is not a denial. Your womb is being prepared to carry and deliver something that's gonna exceed your imagination. Wait on the Lord and be strong and courageous.

Isaiah 40:31, ESV But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

While waiting upon the Lord, he causes us to relax while he does all the work, the same way eagles wings get propelled by the wind during soaring. The eagle gets to save his energy and doesn't have to flap it's wings. The wind does all the work. The Lord wants us to rest in him.

Psalm 37:7, NLT Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.
It might be difficult to see other people prospering before your eyes, especially when you've been faithful to God but Know that you're on God's show, allow him to prepare your womb so that the delivery can be seen to fruition. Learn to let go and let God....