Saturday, May 24, 2008

Use Them Or Lose Them

SINGING

“Use what talents you possess, the woods will be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” - Henry van Dyke

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing." Psalms 100: 1-2

I'm sure most of us are familiar with the parable in Matthew 25: 14-30 about "a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

"The one that received five talents traded and made another five talents. He that received two talents, gained two more. But he that received one went and dug a hole and hid his talent."

After a long time the lord of those servants came back. When he saw what the one with the five talents and two talents had done he was pleased and said to them; "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

But when he came to the servant who buried his talent he said to him; "Thou wicked and slothful servant,"... verse 26

"Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents." verse 28

Whatever your talent is that God has given you, use it for His glory. Whether it be teaching a Sunday School class, Bible study, witnessing, prayer warrior, church cleaning, bulletin board decorating, singing, song leader, preaching, musician, youth leader, kids choir leader, etc. Whatever it is, DON"T bury your talent.

I don't want the Lord to take my talent from me and give it to anyone else. I want to use what He has given me for the Kingdom of God. I want to multiply my talents for His glory. I do not want to hear Him say; "Thou wicked and slothful servant,"... but rather, I want to hear; "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

10 comments:

Jana Allard said...

Great post. And, what a boring world it would be if we all had the same talent.

Unknown said...

Thanks for this reminder to use our talents for God. He is so worthy of all our efforts, it should not be hard for us to worship Him with any bit of ability we possess.

Jolene Harris said...

Sis. Allard, It sure would. I like variety and I'm glad God gave us just that in the way of talents.

Karen J. Hopper said...

How true your words. Talents are varied and sometimes we don't realize them as a talent. We consider them an every day (task).

Carol Connell said...

Great post, Jolene. I like the quote at the beginning too about how silent the woods would be if only the birds with the best voices sang. May God help us to give any ability He blesses us with for His glory!

Jolene Harris said...

Sis Buxton, He is worthy that's for sure. After all that He has done for me that's the least I can do for Him. Sometimes I want to do so much more and I feel so..... I don't know, like I should be doing more than what I'm doing for Him now. I am searching my heart and for His will.

Jolene Harris said...

Karen, you are right. When we look at our talents as an everyday task then sometimes we might even begin to dread doing what we need to be doing for the Lord. We need to look at our talents as blessings. Then we will enjoy what we are doing for Him. For me, it's a blessing to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So why wouldn't it be a blessing to use the talents He has given me for Him?

Jolene Harris said...

Sis. Connell, I like this quote too. I could have another way with this post. Who knows I just might do another post with it as well. I already have several scriptures rolling around in my head. Ahem......the quote is very powerful within itself too isn't it? Kind of hit home very hard. OUCH! Do you know what I mean?

janet said...

Jolene,

That first quote really "struck" me--I needed to read that. Thanks so much for this post!

Jolene Harris said...

Janet, That one hit me pretty hard too. Just because someone can do something better than we can doesn't give us the right to sit back and not participate. We still need to put forth our best efforts.