We are all gifted with some talents.  Every one of us.  Could be in sports, business acumen, leadership, creativity in arts, writing, speaking, or any of a number of other talents. We all get those talents from one source.  From our God.  He created us as his image bearers and gifted us with something that in some way can be used to glorify him and used to show his work in our lives and this world.  We get such an awesome opportunity to do great things with those talents.  Some gifts may not seem like a big deal, but put it to use for God’s glory and watch him work.

For many people in this life, we lose site of our gifts.  We may show those talents as kids, but through our wounds and brokenness over time, those talents may begin to take a back seat to the world, to sin, to capitulation, compromise, and more.  We either hide our talents and gifts or we just don’t make the right use of it.  We don’t walk with God and don’t seek his counsel and the counsel of others with regards to our spiritual giftedness.   For the longest time, I was guilty of this.  One of the gifts I was blessed with was to write.  I would write stories when I was little, but then stopped.  I was too distracted or too broken to bother with it.  Then in my 20s, I began to get some inspiration to write again.  I would write opinion blogs off and on, but only in short cycles.  Then I started this site and same thing, it came and went in cycles.  Then this year, God opened me up.  He led me to understand the gift he had given me and other gifts.  He used conversations I had with others to really help me to see how I can glorify him through my talents and use what he gave me the way it was intended.  Since then, the inspiration has been like a river.

I write this as I was reminded this morning of the ‘Parable of the Talents’ Jesus used in Matthew 25.  This is where the master is going away and gives talents to servants he trusted according to their ability and then left.  When the master returns, he comes to see what they had done with his talents.  Two of the servants made use of the talents to gain more and the third had buried his talents.  The two that gained were rewarded by being put in charge of many things and invited into the joy of the master.  The third servant who buried his talents was rebuked and called wicked and lazy and was cast into outer darkness where this weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Many of you may know this parable.  You see, Jesus is making a strong point here in his teaching.  We are all gifted with talents by God, the Master.  It is up to us to glorify him by making use of those talents.  If we don’t we are stuck in our sin and in our own small world and story.  By our faith in Christ, we have a tremendous opportunity to do so much for the Kingdom.  Not because we are saved by good works, but because he has given us so much as his image bearers and we come alive and glorify him best when we make the most of our gifts.  As I said, many of us lose site of that as we grow up and get lost in the small story of our own little worlds and don’t hear God or see where he is leading us.

I think of my kids as I write this.  Each of them talented in so many ways.  I can just see the gifts that God has blessed them with and pray that they will realize those gifts and use them for his glory as they grow-up.  It’s my responsibility to lead them to the Father in this way so that he leads them to fully come alive as adults and not lost in this world.  I’ll use my daughter, Ashley, as one example.  She has such a gift for writing and especially story telling.  It’s so cool to see how she writes and the creativity she is blessed with.  She loves God as all my family does, and I just pray for her growth in how she uses these spiritual gifts.  It’s so amazing to see.

For those of you with kids, encourage your kids in their giftedness.  Don’t just worry about yours, but lead them to God’s glory and watch him work in their lives in everything they do.  Seek counsel from God and others and be that counsel for your kids well.  Don’t sit by and let the world and the enemy take you or them out.  Let God lead you.  Walk with him.  He will lead you to where he wants you to be.  He will guide your giftedness to come to its full glory.  This isn’t feel goodism.  This is real.  So many don’t realize their gifts and talents and the world take them out.  So many don’t come alive by seeking God for counsel and healing to wage spiritual warfare and the world takes them out.  Don’t squander what God gave you. He wants to restore all of our hearts through Jesus.  If we we allow him too, there is so much we can do for his Kingdom.  Watch him work!