When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything you gave me”. (Erma Bombeck)
back it up with bible
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from Above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
1 Peter 4:10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Romans 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Romans 12:11 [Be] not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:10 By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
2 Timothy 1:6b Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee.
core christianity
Multiply Your Talents!
Matthew 25:26-29 But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. Then you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, and on my coming I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
Reading this parable, we are struck by the serious consequences of failing to produce Kingdom fruit. But there’s something I want to particularly point out. Many of the great heroes of the faith — people like Moses and David, were not given great responsibilities immediately. Each of these men first served as a lowly shepherd, tending sheep. Having tested them first in this humble vocation, God then felt confident to elevate them to positions of greatness — but it all started with a small step!
God is testing his saints in the little things — as we pass our early tests, the Lord will promote us to greater things. Don’t despise the day of small things — a single talent invested wisely can produce a bountiful harvest! And remember that it begins with faithful stewardship of whatever gift or talent that God has allocated to you.
Let’s be wise stewards in these last days, using our divinely given abilities for His glory and purposes so that we can produce an abundant return on the Lord’s investment in our lives. Let’s heed the warning and the encouragement that Jesus gives us in this parable, multiplying, rather than hiding our talent. Amen! (George Whitten)
previously published
God goes by who deserves it the most, even if they may have more than the other fellow who has less! Because often the fellow who has less, has less because he hasn’t been faithful with what he had, like the fellow who buried his talent. Or he hasn’t worked as hard as the other fellow…God rewards hard work and merit and the deserving, but He doesn’t reward the lazy who bury what little talent they’ve got. God takes care of His own, especially the faithful ones, the diligent & the hard-working & the deserving & the good stewards who work hard at developing & investing their talents where they’ll do the most good & get the best returns. God will always bless hard work, diligence, faithfulness, good investment, and He’ll reward it with more and more! The faithful in the few things or in little will be faithful also in much & many things. But if you’re unfaithful in a few things, you’ll even lose what you’ve got, & God’s not going to give you anymore! The servant that buried the talent and didn’t earn a thing or get a thing out of it, didn’t work at it, didn’t invest it, didn’t gain any more, when he dug it up & gave it back to God & said, “Here, I was afraid I’d lose it, so I saved it,” He threw him out!--And He gave the talent to somebody who knew how to invest it & make good use of it. Nothing succeeds like success, and God blesses those who are fruitful & blessed & get results, diligent, hard-working, truly trusting & genuinely obeying. (Good Stewards)
Choose to Be Challenged
(Jesus:) You’ve probably heard the saying, “People are about as happy as they choose to be.” I’m going to paraphrase that now to say, “People are about as challenged as they choose to be.” That’s the truth. You choose how useful you want to be, how many talents you want to develop, and how many opportunities I will have to use you. It’s really that simple. The choice is yours. Do you want to learn, to grow, and to progress? Ask Me and [others] and yourself what talents you can be developing. Spend some time thinking, praying, and counseling about what you want to focus on, what you want to learn, and find out how I want you to go about doing it. Then you can begin setting goals. They don’t need to be long-term goals; in fact, when you’re starting out you’ll probably find it easier and more helpful to set short-term goals that can be reached easily and quickly. Once you start to experience the satisfaction that comes with having set goals, and disciplining yourself enough to achieve them, you’ll want to continue down the path of determination and perseverance that leads to success. Take advantage of the time you have today to gain and develop new skills and talents--whether big or small ones. You don’t need to ace in every talent you develop; even learning a little bit in several skills is a tremendous talent! What you learn today, how you apply yourself today, can mean a big difference in how much variety and excitement you will have later on in life! (Xn 116)
make it personal
Take a few moments to thank the Lord for the talents He has given you. Then ask Him, “Jesus, are there any talents or areas of my life where I can or should do more in order to be a wise steward and multiply my talents as You’d want me to?”
