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Why do we need to have confidence in our talents? Without the recognition of our gifts and the desire to develop them, God can’t use us for his purposes.
We all have a unique and specific role to play in God’s kingdom. When we fail to develop or exercise our gifts—for whatever reason—then the work God has for us may never be accomplished! The more we step out in faith in developing and exercising our gifts, the more God will use us to build his kingdom.
Sheila grew up in a single-parent, low-income home. In high school, the many hours she had to work at various part-time jobs left her little time to focus on her studies, and consequently she didn’t earn high grades. After graduation, she got a full-time job serving tables at a local restaurant.
One day the owner of the restaurant approached Sheila and asked her if she was interested in becoming a manager. Sheila hesitated. She didn’t think she was capable of taking on…
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Identifying my gifts is simple these days, look for the fruit. I may THINK I have a talent, a knack, or a gift. It has been my experience that if there is no fruit there really is no gift.
My father had been in the constuction business for 38 years when some bad business decisions along with a bad economy, lead to the collapse of our family owned, family operated business. I had just quit college after five years of something I left the university without a degree. I went home ready to work, to do something different than what I was doing, even if it was work. For two years I watched the demise and ultimately the dismanteling of a business that was not just a business but our life. To say that hurt would be kind. I was suddenly without a job, without a career path. I did have however, have a wife a baby and a mortgage.
I went to work selling power tools, I took home less than three hundred dollars per week wether I needed it all or not. We were broke and miserable. My dad was living on Social Security. He was just as miserable. One day we were talking and concluded that we needed to do something different. He suggested we try to do some asphalt patching. I didn’t argue. Again anything would be better than what it was. Our little business was constantly floundering. We never had any money but we always had work. We struggled on. Never knowing why. We simply pushed forward because it was better than the alternative.
In the next 25 years I would get to know my got to know my dad in ways that I never knew him in my first 25 years. I am grateful to have seen my dad’s character. I am glad to have gone through the struggles together with him. I am actually glad that we went out of business. If we hadn’t, we would never have known each other like we do today. There wouldn’t be the relationship that there is.
Seeing the fruit is difficult even when you are in the middle of the orchard. All the tough times, they were the blessing. I didn’t want to go back into the construction business. No way, not after what I saw it do to my dad. I “developed” a knack for contracting. I didn’t like it mind you, I tolerated it. But God saw it otherwise. He gave us the gifts we needed to survive and to prosper. And He gave them to us when we needed them. He was there pruning all along. I see it now. The gifts were hard work, (imagine that being a gift) family, the love and respect that we developed for each other, the love that we came to know by employing other families, celebrating the jobs we got, regretting the ones that we lost. The gifts were the talents that God gave each of us to prosper in the business. The fruit was the relationships that have been built within our family with our God. I wouldn’t trade one moment.
God, let me see all your gifts today. Let me see them when you present them, not sometime down the road. Let me be Your gift for aother.