40 Days of Easter - March 29, 2011 Written by: Stephen and Audrey Russell Are you using your talents for God's glory? Parable of the Talents Matthew 25:14-30 Focal Verses: Matthew 25: 24-25 "Then he which had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where that thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine." The tragedy of the story and the focus of the parable is the man who hid his talent. I do not believe he was necessarily "lazy" on purpose; he may have just failed to realize the significance of what he was given, and, as a result, failed to put it to good use. It was "only one" talent, and compared to the five talents given to the other man, what use was his one? Why even try and compete? From him we probably learn the most. First, the talent was not his in the first place; it was on loan. Secondly, Christ shows that people bury their gifts primarily out of fear. Thirdly, the whole parable illustrates that regarding spiritual gifts, one never loses what he uses. That is a powerful lesson; if we use the gifts that God gives us, we cannot lose! The one who was punished never even tried, so God called him wicked and lazy. His disobedience regarding spiritual things doomed him. Christ keeps no servants to be idle; they have received their all from Him and have nothing they can call their own but sin. Not all are expected to produce the same results, but all are expected to be equally faithful to the gifts God entrusts to them. God judges according to what we have. Since He is a perfect judge, He is the only one qualified to measure whether we are using and increasing our gifts or whether we are hiding and squandering what He made available to us. The earth is robbed of God's plan of bringing ministry to a hurt and dying world when the gifts He sends into the earth are detested by those who receive them. Have you detested your talent? Have you hidden it somewhere, too discouraged or too self centered to see beyond your own poor self image? It's not about you. When God gave you a gift to sing, dance, play, write, or whatever, He wasn't thinking about you; He was thinking of somebody else. We need to stop thinking about ourselves and comparing our gift with others, and just get on with the business of being faithful givers of what we've got. "They that compare themselves among themselves are unwise" (2Cor 10:12) "Let every man prove his own work and then he shall have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another." (Gal 6:4) Acknowledge the uniqueness of your own calling, and give yourself to the world to be used by God. Do not be unfaithful to those God has called you by holding back your gift because you are too proud to admit to the world that you are only a "one talent" vessel. Are you a one talent vessel? If so, are you using that one talent? What talent did God give you? Dear Heavenly Father, I humbly come to You, thanking You for all Your many blessings. I pray that we begin putting our talent into work and using what You have graciously given us to further Your Kingdom. I am blessed that You gave each of us a talent that makes us unique and different among our fellow believers. I pray that we use our unique gift to honor and glorify Your name. We ask all these things in Your name. Amen.