Use of Talents
Quote: Are you faithful in the little Things? “And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” Luke 19:17.
Talents used are talents multiplied. Success is not the result of chance or of destiny; it is the outworking of God’s own providence, the reward of faith and discretion, of virtue and persevering effort. The Lord desires us to use every gift we have; and if we do this, we shall have greater gifts to use. He does not supernaturally endow us with the qualifications we lack; but while we use that which we have, He will work with us to increase and strengthen every faculty. . . .
Through faith in the power of God, it is wonderful how strong a weak man may become, how decided his efforts, how prolific of great results. He who begins with a little knowledge, in a humble way, and tells what he knows, while seeking diligently for further knowledge, will find the whole heavenly treasure awaiting his demand. The more he seeks to impart light, the more light he will receive . . .
The man [in the parable] who received the one talent “went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.” It was the one with the smallest gift who left his talent unimproved. In this is given a warning to all who feel that the smallness of their endowments excuses them from service for Christ. If they could do some great thing, how gladly would they undertake it; but because they can serve only in little things, they think themselves justified in doing nothing. In this they err. The Lord in His distribution of gifts is testing character. The man who neglected to improve his talent proved himself an unfaithful servant. Had he received five talents, he would have buried them as he buried the one.
However small your talent, God has a place for it. That one talent, wisely used, will accomplish its appointed work. By faithfulness in little duties, we are to work on the plan of addition, and God will work for us on the plan of multiplication. These littles will become the most precious influence in His work. {FLB 163}
When reading this excerpt, I was fascinated by two particular points, “Talents used are talents multiplied,” and then this one; “He (God) does not supernaturally endow us with the qualifications we lack; but while we use that which we have, He will work with us to increase and strengthen every faculty.”
How often do we come across people, and when you listen as they talk about God; you get the strong impression from their statements that all they have to do is to lay back on the sofa of life, lay back and cruise, and when you ever have need of anything, just pray once and God like a good little Servant will rush off and perform whatever tasks are set for him to do. Perfect Character, lay back and poof, there it is, more patience – poof and you are better than Job, more humble – poof and you are more humble than Moses, and so on it goes.
I have never found this concept in Scripture anywhere, but I have found this one as found in 2 Peter 1:4-7 “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” Here Peter gives us a staircase to Heaven, as it were. Scholars tell that when Jesus questioned Peter at breakfast on the beach after Calvary, (do you love me) Jesus asked about Agape love, and Peter could not offer that high a step, but here Peter commends to us to just step up to that high top step of Agape Love, and that is about as high as it is possible to go.
Temptation has a strong meaning of “mineral assaying,” where one tests to see what of real value is in a bunch of rock or a pile of dirt. That of extreme value is therefore drawn out in the process from what appears to be worthless, and sometimes it is extracted by the heat/furnace method (lead etc), and sometimes by grinding first to a fine powder and then washed out (Copper) or Trammel and wash plant to wash it out (Gold from soil).
Nobody got amazing abs and bulging muscles from watching it all on TV, one has to eat right, exercise right and spend hours pumping the iron each and every day. You do not get a relationship with a prospective spouse by studying her picture. It needs face to face interaction, and the same comes when you want a relationship with God, you need to spend time with him talking (Prayer) learning from him (Bible reading/Study) and then a relationship grows and blossoms.
This interaction then shows that we have character defects, things that need changing in us. We all know that God is Absolutely Perfect, and has our best interest at heart, so what we give up and change is so beneficial to us and to our heavenly relationship, it also rubs off with our human relationships and they are so much more improved. So as we journey through life and run into certain situations, we resist the evil and bad tendencies, choose the good, and this each time strengthens our “Resist Evil Muscles,” so each time it is easier and they become automatic to resist evil and to choose the good.
This is what Peter described in 2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in grace, and [in] the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him [be] glory both now and forever. Amen.” So; please use your Talents now and they will grow bigger, and then God will give you more and more, as you prove to be a good and faithful servant.
