Stewardship with Colossians
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (NIV) — Colossians 3:23-24
In my opinion this is one of the most liberating passages in the Holy Scriptures, and yet it is also one of the toughest passages. In the modern world we tend to compartmentalize different aspects of our lives. This includes our worship of God. For many Christians across the United States worship is simply seen as what we do on Sunday mornings. While gathering on Sundays will always be an integral part of Christianity; if it is limited to Sundays then we as followers are cutting ourselves short.
God has blessed us with our lives and we need to do our best to have good stewardship of those lives. That means that whatever we do in life we need to do for the Lord. What Paul is talking about here is that how we live is another form of worship. Our lives and the decisions we make everyday prove how much we follow the Lord.
As the old saying goes, “actions speak louder than words.” Every single day each of us makes hundreds of decisions. Far to many times we are on autopilot for these decisions when we should actually be taking time to examine these decisions and decide if they are in-line with the will of God.
The great thing about working for God is that in all aspects of life we are looking only to God for validation. Especially in the world of social media, people are much too concerned with themselves and what other people think of them. When we are doing all things in life for the Lord then the only opinion that matter is God's. It does not matter what other's think of us if we are living bodies of worship to God. Jesus was not concerned with what people thought of Him. His detractors called Him a glutton and a drunkard. They even accused Him of working for the devil. Yet Jesus was never deterred because He knew that He was living out the will of God. His entire life, every step He took was within the will of God.
I encourage you to take time to explore your own lives. Which parts of your life are you not giving over to God? It could be your work, or perhaps it is how you treat your own body. Our bodies are temples, in which the Holy Spirit resides. We must be good stewards over that temple.
This isn't said to cause you shame but to get you to think about all aspects of life. Perhaps you spend way to much time on social media or Netflix. How could that time be better put to use? I can tell that when you start seeing your life as a worship of God that you will find areas that you have kept from Him.
The amazing part of following God is that when you give those areas over to God; the peace and the benefits that come with that is unparalleled against anything that the world can offer. The reward far outweighs the sacrifice that is required.