invest and increase

How To Use Your Talents and Gifts 

Be careful not to bury the gifts and talents God has entrusted you with. We must invest and increase. This is such a major factor of living purposefully.

Let’s let this VITAL truth and way of life sink into our hearts, minds and lives.  

1. Talents and gifts are given by GRACE. The gifts we have are just that… a GIFT. They are not of us but given to us. They are not only gifts but gifts from God. This truth really brings perspective on how we should treat talents and gifts and use them. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable of a man who goes on a journey and gives, entrusts his servants, with his property. The story goes and we see that the three different servants receive different amounts of money and they all do different things with those amounts. Two multiple it and one wastes it. A striking aspect to be noted for this first point of grace is that this master entrusts his land to his servants. There is nothing earned about this. It is GRACE on grace. It’s an accurate representation of God entrusting HIS gifts to us – not our land, not our talents, not our gifts but His. In Romans 12:6, Paul says that our gifts are given according to the “grace given to us.” Then in 1 Peter 4:10 that we ought to use the gifts to serve as “good stewards of God’s varied grace.”

2. Talents and gifts are given by grace to YOU. In the parable of the talents, Jesus tells how each servant received a different number of talents. In 1 Corinthians 12:7, Paul says that “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit” and goes onto to talk about the different gifts of the Spirit people have. We each have different manifestations. In Romans 12:6-8, we see that our gifts differ. In 1 Peter 4:10, “each has received a gift.” This is such a sweet thought that God has given each of us different talents and gifts. He has different ways for each of us to glorify Him. He has different talents and gifts for each of us to use! These things are given to US. He WANTS to use YOU.

3. Talents and gifts are given by grace to you to be USED and USED WELL. God gave gifts and talents to YOU by His grace, but He absolutely gave it to you for a reason. He wants you to use those talents and gifts – the ones HE GAVE you – for His glory and the good of others. He wants you to USE those gifts and USE them well, to invest and increase. He also gives us instructions on what to use them for, and it is not for whatever we want and however we want. 1 Peter 4:10 says we should use our gifts “to serve one another.” 1 Corinthians 12:7 says we are to use our gifts “for the common good.” In Matthew 25 verses 21 and 23, the Master praises the servants who – in verses 16 and 17 — traded them and increased the talents for their Master. He says “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.” To the servant who hides his talents in verse 19, the master says “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So, take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.” We see the master is upset calling the servant wicked and slothful. He says the servant ought to have INVESTED the talent and INCREASED it, giving the master what was HIS OWN… with INTEREST.

Friend, God has give YOU gifts and talents by His grace. I don’t know what they may be, but He does. He calls you to figure those things out and invest and increase them. And it seems that He is does not turn a blind eye to the one who wastes the gifts He has given Him.

This exhortation is filled with encouragement – God has given you a gift that He wants you to use to make an impact and glorifying Him with. It is also filled with a challenge – use that gift and do not waste what God has given you to use and multiply.

XO,

Meg