CAN YOU BE TRUSTED WITH THE NAKEDNESS OF MEN?

Can God trust you with the nakedness of others?

Do you understand the responsibility of stewardship?

These are questions I began asking myself as I started to learn and understand responsibility and accountability in God and these are questions you should ask yourself also.

"Am I a person God can trust?"

"If God has a need for a voice, a covering, a man, anybody, anything, will I be someone that can be relied upon?"

When God reveals privileged information to me, can I keep it to myself and brood without feeling the need to reveal it prematurely? Can I, like Mary, ponder these things in my heart and allow for the full manifestation and timing of what God has planned?

When the HolySpirit leads someone to speak to me and trust me with their story, their pain, their feelings, their scars and heart, can I cover them and not share it with someone else or turn it to a story time or a teaching moment or maybe use it to start a conversation maybe even under the guise of concern for them but intentionally aimed at making me feel like I matter, have something to say or just to glorify self?

Do I see my neighbour struggling or in need of help and instead of intentionally seeking to help them, turn it to an avenue to contribute to making them feel small, behind, invalidated or worse than they feel?

Am I covering my family and loved one's like I should?

Does my words or actions build up and not tear people down?

When the people entrusted to my guidance, care, sight and life come to me in honesty, can I used wisdom to serve, steer, teach and inspire them while still creating room to guide, protect and nuture them?

Am I a good steward of destinies?

Do I still gossip and speak about the people around me?

These questions can go on and on and it's easy for us to think that we are not guilty of being bad stewards and to say we can be trusted. But can we really be trusted?

I've had to learn that when people come to us with their story, their lives, their secrets and struggles, they are not just random.

It's a rare privilege to be trusted with the essence and nakedness of people. It's a test of character, loyalty, love, discipline and moral uprightness to not misuse or abuse the privilege of trust, the privilege of stewardship.

Another thing aside from our actions that I find to be really powerful are words. Language.

Pray and ask God for the right language at every moment.

The words you say to people in their presence or absence carries weight. As long as it has been released, it has life.

Words are not just words. Words are powerful.

Jesus Himself was referred to as the word.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."

‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭3‬

This alone reveals to us the creative power of words. In Hebrews 11:3, we are also shown that through faith the worlds were framed by the word of God.

Words make up things. Frame things. Build things. Establishes things. Creates things. Gives life to things.

The foundation of this world and everything we see was on the spoken word.

Genesis 1: 3 "Then God said", It could have been anything but 'He said'.

The words we say and those said over us are not ordinary and we should not treat it as such.

What do you say about yourself? What do you say about others? What do you say about the situation and happenings in your life? What do you name and call things? (Names are a different matter entirely), But words are seeds and seeds that are sown will always bear fruits. It's their nature to do so.

I could speak about the power of language in giving meaning and life to things but that's not my emphasis today.

Today I'm asking you:

• How are you using your words to cover the people in your life?

• How are you shaping and framing their lives and yours with your words?

• How are you building and creating possibilities with your words?

The HolySpirit taught me to mindful of words and to master words. Also that I should never allow a negative word be the last word said over a situation in my life. Always use your words right and speak on time.

That's how important words are. Words are important.

So this is my plea today.

Let us master the act of covering the people entrusted to us with all we have.

When you are trusted with privileged information, Keep it sacred.

When you see a brother or sister in need of support, cover them and preserve their dignity and honour. Steward their nakedness properly.

When you don't have anything good to say, shut up.

If you have a falling out with someone, the honourable thing to do is keep their "secrets" secrets. It's not a license to shame them and tear them down.

If you say you can be trusted, actually be a person that can be trusted.

Don't weaponise people weakness and touch their wounds just for sports.

Be a place where people can come to heal, to rest, to grow, to breathe, to see themselves again, to try again, to love again, to be whole again.

Be a haven of some sort, that when God seeks a man to cover His children, He can use you.

Don't weaponize access and privileges. Your gifts are meant for the other person, not you.

Let your words, deeds and life, be a covering for your brothers and sisters. It is our shared responsibility to cover one another.

Extend grace to your people, learn from our Father, even after Adam and Eve fell, He still covered their nakedness and made a plan for redemption.

Covering the nakedness of the people around us gives room for redemption and life.

Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for the gift of men, community and fellowship. Thank you for placing us in families and ensuring that we never have to be alone. Thank you for loving us and having a place for us in you always.

Lord we ask for your enabling grace and might, that we might become people that you can trust and also be worthy of the weight of responsibility you have placed on us for one another.

Help us to realize the sacredness of trust and vulnerability. Let us walk in discernment and discretion even as we cover, lead, guide and love our brothers and sisters.

Teach us to honour one another Father, teach us to be good stewards and shepherds of each other and our lives.

Let us not despise our neighbours or be selfish with ourselves, time, gifts and resources, let our words heal, build, defend and protect our neighbours. Help us as we learn to honour people at their level of growth and understanding, give us your wisdom to help people's life, story, and journey, That we follow your direction and make room for them to figure out life and their purpose in you.

Take away any contrary spirit, thoughts, and language that would make us not want to live and dwell peacefully with our sibblings in Christ.

Help us to do better and to know that even if we have failed in our responsibility towards each other that we can always do better and learn again in you.

Father, help us to also love ourselves, choose healing, community and wholeness, so that we do not get weary, overburdened and tired even as we pour into others.

Let us always be in your perfect will for us as a collective. Let our lives bring glory to you always even as we bear your fruits and they last in us, as we grow to become better sons.

Thank you because we know that you always hear us and answer us and you do more than we can ask, or imagine.

Thank you Father for your love and presence.

In Jesus name we have prayed. Amen

Jesus loves you always ❤️