God-given Talents

Talents

Morning all.

I know I have been told, probably countless times, that the Bible, the Word of God, is a two edged sword. Well, it may have taken me nigh on 68 years but I am beginning to catch on. Matthew 25:14-30 tells us the Parable of the Talents – how three servants treated their masters ‘money’. Two invested wisely doubled their allocation while one buried his ‘for fear of losing his masters wealth’. Two were highly commended by the master, while the third was beaten for his laziness and had his allocation taken away from him and given to one of the others.

I was thinking about this today and, when the penny dropped, it was like a lighthouse beam suddenly switching on in the darkness. Everything became clear – well clearer than mud anyway. We all have talents and they are good talents and not so good talents. One of my talents is to be slow on the uptake in certain areas – like Bible interpretation for a start !! I have other talents though. Communication – writing is better than speaking but I manage to do both. Languages – I speak four languages with varying degrees of efficiency. I speak English, French, German, and Rubbish. English and Rubbish I speak very fluently. French I can survive and German I can avoid being fleeced by the taxi drivers. My wife says I don’t speak Texan at all so I have omitted it from the list.

Other areas of ‘expertise’, or talent, include music which I sing loudly and badly, and computers which is where I earned my living for 30+ years. Seeing the paucity of my list I am tempted to ask if there is any beginning to my talents? Yet of course I am adult male, so I drive perfectly. I understand and love all sports – and I used to play most of them. I am a model father and grandfather, an improving husband, a bit of a prophet, and an inveterate exaggerator. Exaggeration is not a God-given talent, but one I have developed for myself.

So, where is all this trumpet blowing leading? Well all of us are, by and large, just like me. I am a typical human being. I have talents, most of which are God-given, that I am supposed to use, more or less, to His eternal glory. Every single one of us is exactly the same.

So, now I have to stop myself and get serious. How does God view my usage of all the talents He gave me? As far as you are concerned, how does God view how you have used, and continue to use, the talents he has given you? Some of us have only one talent. Others have many. It really is unimportant how many talents we have. The only thing that interests the Lord is how we use the talents He gave us. Have we used them to the benefit of ourselves or for the benefit of His Kingdom? Have you used them well and wisely, or have you squandered and wasted yours? Have you helped build His kingdom, or have you ignored Him and used the talents only for your own selfish good?

One day, like the servant in the parable, we will all have to answer that question.

Have a great day y’all (That’s the limit of my Texan - apparently)