Jesus and Your Talents

Michael Hollinger wrote once: It’s a good thing that God is less concerned about our ability to value resources than he is concerned about our ability to use them. In our lives, however, we tend to have the reverse problem. Sometimes we overvalue ourselves. Generally instead of overvaluing our own resources, the problem tends to be that we overlook what we actually have.It’s very easy to think that because we don’t have as much money as the guy down the street that it should really be up to him to fix it. 

We think that the other guy is smarter, so he should be the one to solve the problem. We think those folks are more spiritual, so we’ll let them pray about it. Therefore we believe that since that church has more people, they are the ones responsible for evangelizing this part of the world, I’ve done my part.

The point is pretty simple actually: Don’t focus on what you do not have. That’s not important. Focus instead on what you do. As a child of God, you have a loving Master who, from the beginning of time picked you as his special child, worthy of doing good things for him. As Ephesians 2:10 says: He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do. I know that the One who gives us a job to do is never going to put his own child out to pasture without the resources needed to do the job.

We just need to remember that ultimately it’s the Master’s resources in the Master’s time that bring the increase to our church families and our own personal families.  We are actually sitting on a spiritual gold mine as children of God. We have a great pool of talent and resources that just needs to be used.  It may mean that we shift our focus to the people in our neighborhoods or in our areas. There are people herein your neighborhood and with whom you are friends who need the Gospel, and you have it. You just need to use what you have to get it to them. 

We can sit around here all day doing assessments of what we do and do not have, silently mourning our state, or we can get out there and use what we have to the glory of God.  We can't sit and say, "I'm the only one doing anything.  Others help would make it go that much better." 

In the end, the results are up to our God, Jesus and our choice. He isn’t going to hold us accountable for the numbers or the money that we do or do not have – just our faithfulness in using what he’s given us. 

Are you ready to be a part of something new and exciting? 

It is time to use your talents for God.