Focus: Sacred Trust

Text: 1Tim.1:11

"According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust."

Trust is sacred; it should not be desecrated or broken. God has given you a treasure to manage or maximize for Him. There is a whole lot that God has entrusted to you, and it is important for you to know that trusteeship is not to be trifled with. 

In 1Cor.12:7, the Message Bible reads, "Each person is given something to do that shows who God is..." There is something God has committed to your trust. You are a custodian of divine trust and a trustee of a certain divine resource. Nothing you possess is absolutely yours. Whatever you have, you are to hold in trust for God. 

God has made you a steward of something, and He requires and expects you to be faithful. Your success or fruitfulness is hinged on your faithfulness.

Life is not yours. It is given to you by God in trust. Land is not yours. God owns all lands. The earth is God's. In Lev.25:23, the Lord says to Israel, "The land shall not be sold for ever: for THE LAND IS MINE; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me." You own nothing that is God's originally and absolutely. All that you possess is entrusted to you by the original owner - God.

Paul declares, "But as we were allowed of God to be PUT IN TRUST with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which TRIETH our hearts" (1Thes.2:4). With every sacred trust God is trying or testing your heart. He is observing you and how you treat sacred things in your possession. 

God has entrusted the GOSPEL to you for your faithful communication, and you must not fail God.

Paul says, "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath ENABLED me, for that he COUNTED me faithful, putting me into the ministry" (1Tim.1:12). God put you in ministry; you did not put yourself. Ministry is a sacred trust. It requires humility and faithfulness. God trusts you. He enables and counts you faithful.

Paul tell Timothy, his son in the faith, "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust…" (1Tim.6:20). If you are not aware yet, find whatever it is that God has entrusted to you. No man is without a sacred trust. Concerning Israel, Paul says, "Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the ORACLES of God" (Rom.3:2). God has entrusted to you the gospel and the oracles of God. You will answer and account to God for your own sacred trust. Paul says of himself, "For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me" (1Cor.9:17). 

A dispensation of the gospel has been entrusted to you. Do not sabotage God's plan!

Paul makes bold to say, "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the MINISTRY of reconciliation" (2Cor.5:18). Again he says, "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation" (2Cor.5:19). Here you have as the sacred trust the ministry and word of reconciliation. And again, he says, "That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us" (2Tim.1:14). It is a good thing that God has committed to your trust. It is a treasure to receive with gratitude and discharge with a graceful heart. 

Paul says, "But hath in due times manifested his WORD through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour" (Tit.1:3). It is by divine order or decree that the sacred trust was committed to you. God vetoed it. He needed no one's opinion or suggestion. He loved you enough to commit something sacred into your hands.

Finally, Paul says, "But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter" (Gal.2:7). 

Even in the matter of audience God has given you your main audience. Your sheep will hear your voice and follow.

God has called you to reach certain people, and touch certain lives, not every person.

God wants you to be faithful to your assignment and purpose and to discharge your sacred responsibility with grace and candor. Understand that you are managing God's resources for Him. Nothing sacred is really your own. Even your body is the temple of God and the Spirit lives in you. The Scripture says that you are not your own, and that you are bought with a price. Be careful how you handle the holy things in your care! Holy things are not meant to be played with or taken for granted. Be warned!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter