Day Two Hundred Seventy-Nine “Managers”

            He was just a high school kid, trying to find a part-time job to help cover his college fees, car expenses, and provide a bit of spending money.  Who would have known that years later, that job would morph into a living, as he would become the store manager of that establishment?  This young kid would now be responsible to deliver high quality food, to establish a safe work environment for his employees, to recruit new staff, to maintain hygiene standards in food preparation, to handle customer complaints, to juggle work schedules, to manage promotional campaigns, and to keep his crew energized and effective.  Whew, that’s a lot of responsibility!  But even if all that is accomplished with the upmost precision, one fact remains clear, he was the manager, not the owner of that restaurant, and he would be held accountable. 

            “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”  The term steward describes a household manager in the ancient Greek world, one who handled the finances for the owner.  Those managers would be held accountable for their actions.  Jesus referred to this accountability in a parable of a steward who was accused of wasting his master’s goods and was called on to “give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.”

Joseph is a prime example of a good steward.  His owner, Potiphar, purchased Joseph at a slave auction, saw that the Lord was with Joseph, so “he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.”  And since stewards often enjoy the things they manage, Joseph would have been well-fed and properly dressed.  Although Joseph would be falsely accused and experience years in the shadows of prison, how does the story end?  Joseph would again be a steward-in a BIG way, in charge of everything and everyone in Egypt, except for Pharaoh himself, and God would entrust his with preserving the nation of Israel.

            As a born-again child of the King, “bought with a price,” I must operate my life as a manager, not an owner.  A wise King David observed that “the earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof, the world, and they that dwell within.”  God made it all, God owns it all; His creative act establishes His ownership, I am merely a steward.  All that He entrusts to me, my talents, finances, length of days, hours in a day, the earth I inhabit, and the air that I breathe, are His, not mine.  I don’t owe Him ten percent, I owe Him all, for all that I have and all that I am, is ultimately His.  And I will give an account for how I used all I have on loan from Him.

I Corinthians 4:2  Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

Lord, thank You for all that You have entrusted to my care. Help me to be a faithful steward of all with which I have been blessed.

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