Faith entrusted to you

1 Timothy 1:11  "That conforms to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which He entrusted to me."

How do your feelings about something change when it is something that has been entrusted to you by someone else, rather than it being something you consider to be yours?  Ownership carries with it a certain pride and level of diligence in caring for something.  But I think your level of diligence and care increases when that something belongs to someone else and they have entrusted you with it.

When someone expresses trust in us, we almost instinctively want to rise to the occasion and prove ourselves worthy of their trust.  Paul describes the Gospel as having been entrusted to him.  This is a much different way of viewing it versus what I think is more natural, which is to focus on our decision to accept the Gospel as truth. When you are entrusted with something, acceptance is less of a focus.  Caretaking and diligence become more important.

How would your relationship with God change if you viewed your faith not as the product of your own act of acceptance, but rather as God's act of entrusting it to you?  Try viewing your faith not as something that you casually own, but as a great treasure that God has entrusted to you.