If a stranger walked up to you, showed you a briefcase with $100,000 in it, asked you to watch it for a few minutes and walked away, how would you guard it? In 2012 Ally Bank set up hidden cameras and did just that. People were nervous holding that big of a deposit. Some double checked the money was real. One guy set the briefcase down beside him, but was so nervous, he put his leg over it to protect it. Ally Bank said that of all the people they handed the briefcase to, none of them took the money. Every one of them guarded it. No one really challenged them and they thought no one was watching them so it wasn’t hard to guard. We would probably do the same, yet do we guard the truth and gifts God has deposited in our lives?
In 1 Kings 22 kings Jehoshaphat of Judah and Ahab of Israel were about to go to war with Aram to take back one of their cities. King Ahab summoned a bunch of prophets to ask if he should go to war. They all told him yes and that they would be victorious. Then King Jehoshaphat asked for a prophet of the Lord. Ahab told him of one, but said he never prophesied anything good. They requested him and he mocked the other prophets and said the same thing, but the king demanded the truth. The prophet told him he was going to die in battle and that he was being deceived to go into battle. The king and other prophets got mad at him for speaking the truth. The king even put him in jail over it until he returned. The prophet didn’t change the truth because of the circumstances. Instead, he doubled down on the truth God had spoken to him. King Ahab died in battle just as the prophet said.
2 Timothy 1:14 says, “Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you” (NLT). God has entrusted each one of us with the truth of His Word and with spiritual gifts. Are you just sitting on them or burying them in the ground? Do you compromise them when it conflicts with culture or the expectations of others? Or do you stand firm on them the way the prophet did no matter what the outcome? We have the ability through the Holy Spirit to guard the precious deposits God makes in our lives. The more we value it the more intensely we will guard it. Don’t neglect God’s gifts, His promises or the Truth that He has entrusted to you.
Photo by Eduard Delputte on Unsplash
