Again, [the kingdom of heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.
- Matthew 25:14

This week’s passage contains a parable from Jesus about God’s kingdom. Reading it, we hear that God entrusts us with capital and then holds us accountable for what we do with what he’s entrusted to us.

Look at the verse above. A wealthy man entrusts all of his wealth to three servants. We find out later in the story that this wealth runs in the millions of dollars.

Like the servants in the story, we too have been entrusted with tremendous resources. People in Jesus’ time would have been absolutely flabbergasted to see the resources at our disposal. Subsistence farmers would have no mental category for our modern grocery stores. Access to books and the wealth of information available on the internet would have amazed them. And don’t even get us started talking about toilets.

One of the great tragedies of our culture is that we who have so much compare ourselves to others who have even more. As a result, we struggle to be grateful for what we have. Generosity often falls to the wayside.

Take a few moments today to take a gratitude inventory. What has the Lord entrusted to you? Name it and thank him for it.

Here are some categories to help you get started (from Mike Breen and Ben Sternke):

• Financial capital: What monetary resources has God entrusted to you?
• Intellectual capital: What creativity and knowledge has been entrusted to you?
• Physical capital: What kind of time and energy has God entrusted with you?
• Relationship capital: What family and friends has God entrusted to you?
• Spiritual capital: What spiritual wisdom and power has been entrusted to you?