What is the prevailing thought when we hear the word “responsibility?” We all have them, responsibilities that is, and I believe that we all handle them in different ways. I think as we get older, we assume that we can handle responsibilities better, although that may simply be because failure to handle our responsibilities can lead to more serious consequences. Obviously with that statement, I am referring to the aging process that takes us from childhood to adulthood. Perhaps it is just that we have more responsibilities. I have the image of the “bell curve” in mind as we age, and responsibilities grow and then maybe start to lessen. I guess I shall see.
I wanted to spend a few moments look at responsibilities from a biblical standpoint. What does God say about responsibilities? 2 Corinthians 9:8 is a passage that speaks to us about having responsibilities and accomplishing what we, as God’s people are called to do. “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Corinthians 9:8 NASB). As you read that you may say, “good deed?” Yes, good deeds are the responsibilities that God is speaking of. We honor God and bring Him glory by doing the things that He calls us to do. I have said this to people before in a counseling setting and the response is one a proverbial lightbulb going off. The responsibilities that we have, when we complete them fully, show our love for God and our love for others. Yes, I mean that the way we live our lives in handling our daily responsibilities, our to do list, our daily agenda, our caring for others show the world that we love the Lord.
Now, I want to take this a step further. Failure to live up to and take care of our responsibilities can lead us into sin. Our passage in 2 Corinthians is a promise from the Lord and should encourage us and call us to responsibility. When we look at that passage, we can see that there is never a time when as believers we can excuse our sin that came from dropping our responsibilities because we feel we don’t have the resources to accomplish them. What I am saying is that God gives us all that we need to do what we ought. I will leave you with this. “But I have done everything I could,” and the response to consider, “Everything, what about…” God gives us all we need, pursue Him with all you have. It is worth it!