The Proper Portion

Eph 4:7
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Eph 3’2 ..if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you.

Father, You stopped me on these two verses. I don’t completely understand 4:7 but ask You to help me with it.

In Eph 3:2 Paul says that the stewardship of Your grace was given to him….that is what caught my heart.

For whom was it given? For us, for believers. I have admittedly thought of grace as something that enables us in our weaknesses, in times of our need; something for us and extending it also to others. This is all true.

But this verse clearly states that Paul is a steward of your grace, which also means that I am a steward of Your grace.

Thinking of it as something to steward is a little different than how I thought of it before. It truly is a gift, something to share with the body of Christ, with the lost.

Oikonomos is the Greek word used for steward. The definition is:
the manager of household or of household affairs esp. a steward, manager, superintendent (whether free-born or as was usually the case, a freed-man or a slave) to whom the head of the house or proprietor has entrusted the management of his affairs, the care of receipts and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age.
A steward was to manage and oversee his boss’s business. The words “proper portion” seems to me to be a key thing. We are to give out the proper proportion of what You have given to us, according to Your purposes.
You have given us above all else – Your love. I am to be a steward of Your love. It is given to me for a purpose, for many purposes. And one of those purposes is “dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age.”

Proper portion. What is the proper portion? There is no set measure is there Father? Because Your love surpasses human knowledge (Eph 3:19) and its depth has no end.
Only you know the “proper portion” at any given moment. Your Holy Spirit tells us what that “proper portion” is as we go through our day.
Your Holy Spirit leads us in our “stewardship” of Your love. You are a generous God, Father. You have a deep well of love that You pour out to us every moment of the day and You desire that we not only receive every bit of it, but that we steward it out to the world. Even to the “children not yet of age”; this reminds me of brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling, who have not matured, who need the expression of Your love in their life.
Help me Father, to be a good steward of Your love for the sake of Your Body.