“E” In STEWARD
We're two letters into the STEWARD series, and today we land on E.
I am an eternally minded, equipped emissary of my King.
Eternally Minded
Last week we talked about taking our mind back, about not letting worry and people-pleasing steal 80% of our mental energy. Being eternally minded is the next step. It's not just guarding your mind from what's stealing it.
It's filling it with something better!!
Colossians 3:2 says it plainly: "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."
Here's what I mean by that practically. When you're making a decision, big or small, ask yourself: will this matter in light of eternity? Not "will this matter next week" or "will this matter this year." Will it matter forever?
That question changes everything. It changes how you spend your time. It changes what concerns you. An eternally minded steward isn't distracted by what's temporary because she's got her eyes fixed on what's permanent.
We don’t get caught up in trends. We stay focused on what God wants us to do.
Equipped
Now, you can't be eternally minded if you don't know what God's mind actually is. And the only way I know to find that out is to be in His Word.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Friend, I'm currently on my 37th time going through the Bible. Thirty-seven.
I don't say that to brag.
I say it because I want you to know I'm not just teaching you a nice idea I read about once. I've watched this book equip me, change me, over and over, in seasons I never could have prepared for on my own.
Every single time I go through it, I see something new. Something I need for exactly where I'm at right now. That's not a coincidence. That's what "God-breathed" and "thoroughly equipped" actually mean in real life. It's not information. It's equipment.
When Hebrews 4:12 talks about the Word being alive and active and cutting like a sword, I get it! God uses his Word to cut away what’s not eternal, to cut away what WE think is good but is actually hurting us.
You cannot be an eternally minded equipped emissary for a King whose Word you don't know. You cannot represent Him accurately if you're only getting secondhand information from a sermon here or a post there. Get in the WORD, friend. Let it equip you the way it was designed to.
I am not against podcasts or books. I use those resources too!! Just do not let it be your top source of information about God. It needs to be the BIBLE so you recognize when someone in a podcast or sermon teaches something incorrect. (Because there is A LOT of that right now. Go read Matthew 24, start at verse 4 and go the the end of the chapter)
Emissary
An emissary is someone sent, with the full authority and identity of the one who sent them, to represent that person in a foreign land.
That's exactly who you are.
You are not home yet. This world is not your final address.
You've been sent here, to this specific time, this specific family, this specific neighborhood and workplace, as a representative of your King.
Not to blend in. Not to disappear into the culture around you. To represent Him well. To be salt and light.
2 Corinthians 5:20 says we are "Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us."
Every conversation you have, every way you respond when you're tired or wronged or overlooked, every choice to be excellent instead of average, that's an emissary at work. People are watching you, whether you realize it or not.
So here's my question for you this week:
Are you spending time in the Word regularly enough to actually know your King and His instructions WELL, or are you trying to represent Him on secondhand information?
And in the ordinary moments of your day, at work, at home, in traffic, does your life look like you belong to another Kingdom?
You don't have to have it all figured out today. Just start by making small decisions every day.
In passionate purpose,
Dorothy
Father,
Make me eternally minded in a world that pulls me toward the temporary. Equip me through Your Word, not just information about You, but transformation into Your likeness. Let me carry myself like the emissary You've made me, representing You well in every ordinary moment of today.
In Jesus' name, Amen.