DOES GOD CONSIDER YOU AS A DEPENDABLE AND HONEST CHILD OF HIS?

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much,
and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”
LUKE 16:10

Would you say the world we live in today is mostly honest, or mostly dishonest?
Do we live in a society where most people can be trusted, or most cannot be trusted?
What about your own life?
Are you honest and trustworthy, or are there times when you are neither?

Honesty is defined as:
Uprightness and fairness;
truthfulness, sincerity, or frankness;
freedom from deceit or fraud.
Being honest covers a lot of areas.
It is more than not telling lies, it includes fairness and sincerity.
It also includes being frank (or Jim, or Bill, etc.).
Seriously, as a believer, we need to temper frankness with love and consideration.
It doesn’t mean we fail to be truthful, it just means that we choose our words carefully.
When being frank with others, we can actually lift them up,
or tear them down depending on how we present the truth.
There’s the old example of when a wife asks her husband, “Does this dress make me look too fat?”
“Well, not too fat” is probably not a good answer.
An answer tempered with love would me more like, “You look good to me no matter what you wear”.

Trustworthy is defined as:
Deserving of trust or confidence; dependable; reliable.
The first thing we notice is ‘deserving of trust’.
This means that we have developed a reputation of trustworthiness.
Others know from our ‘track record’ that we are dependable and reliable.
If we make a promise, others know that we will fulfill it
(unless we are hampered by sickness or some emergency situation).
Others also know that if they give us a responsibility, we will fulfill it to the best of our ability.

A person who is honest and trustworthy just sounds like the kind of person
you would like to have in your circle of friends doesn’t it?
You know that when you want a straightforward answer, this person is the one you can depend on.

Now, how is your relationship with the Lord?
Does He consider you as honest and trustworthy?
Can He depend on you to fulfill whatever responsibility He gives you?
Would you like to assess your dependability in God’s eyes?
Read Matthew 25:14-30 and see how the dependable are rewarded,
but the undependable miss out on their rewards.

God has given His children at least one spiritual gift (maybe more)
and He expects them to be dependable and use them for His glory.
Some gifted people fail to enjoy their rewards
because they are focused on doing things that will get praise from men.
Some miss out when they fail to use their gift because they feel it will not be noticed by others.
What God expects, is that we dedicate completely all of our talents and gifts to Him.

How dependable are you in the eyes of God?
Have you identified your spiritual gift?
Are you using the gift He gave you in order to bring Him praise and receive your blessings?
Are you more focused on the praise of men than you are on pleasing God?
Do you try to get the attention and praise of others, or are you more concerned
with obeying God and using the gift (or gifts) He has given you?
If you feel that God is blessing others more than He blesses you,
it could be because they are using His gift to them, but you are not.
Pray,
Father God, help me to use the gift you have given me and be completely yielded to you,
rather than being concerned with the praise of men. Help me to be focused on pleasing
you over pleasing man. Help me to realize that when I please you, I will also please others.
Pleasing you gives me the ability to be concerned with the needs of others.  When you bless
me for being obedient, dependable and trustworthy, remind me to thank you for my rewards.