I’ve been reflecting on the question am I doing the things God has laid on my heart, using the gifts God has given me in the way He wants me to. And as I reflect, I thought I would share my thoughts here in the hopes that it both challenges and encourages you as well. Maybe you are asking the same question, maybe God has been prompting you through His Spirit to use more fully the gifts He has given. God expects us to share His love with others and work to further His kingdom, for the harvest is plenty but the workers are few (as Jesus pointed out to His disciples early in His ministry. Matthew 9:37). Working for the Lord, using what He has given us for His glory, shows how much we love Him and rightfully fear Him as Sovereign Lord. Thinking about what happens when we don’t use our gifts for Him, my mind goes to the parable of the ‘bags of gold’ Jesus told in Matthew 25 and Luke 19. We not only miss out on helping bring others to Jesus and the blessings of following Jesus, we can also miss out on heaven altogether if we ignore His call on our heart. Loving and following God is a heart issue.
All through the Old and New Testaments, God has portrayed that we need to fear Him, accept and use for Him the gifts He has given, love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, believe on Him, and share His truth with all around us, working to further His kingdom. My mind goes to the story of Esau when he gave up his birthright to Jacob for some stew because he was famished; I wonder what was going through his mind. Did he really think so little of the gift that was his just for being born first? Did he think that, in the end he was still the firstborn and no one could actually take it away, so “whatever”? It does not appear that Esau set a good and godly firsborn example, nor took seriously the importance of God in his life, as he mingled with the Canannites and married Canaanite women. And he was in for a quite a shock when Jacob deceived their father and took the firstborn blessing that Esau so carelessly neglected. When Esau implored his father to bless him too, it was too late for the fullness of the blessing that would have been his. Genesis 27
I think of David in 1 Samuel 17, when he chose to face Goliath: David referred to Goliath as a “disgrace to Israel,”an “uncircumcised Philistine that defies the armies of the living God.” 1 Samuel 17:26 With his focus on how Goliath was an enemy of the living God, David went forward in faith, believing that “the Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine.” 1 Samuel 17:37 And then what catches my attention in 1 Samuel 17:48 is this: “David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.” He didn’t walk, he ran! I’m going to guess here that, humanly speaking, David’s heart was pounding, maybe the sweat was pouring, maybe not – David’s faith in the Lord was strong. But I think of how my adrenaline rushes when feeling the enemy upon me, and when approaching something so big that only God can handle. And David ran! He was not backing down, because it was more important to him that everyone know that he was coming against the enemy “in the name of the Lord God Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel … This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands … and all those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give all of you into our hands.”
Look at the apostle Paul whose genuine faith, after he was converted, was continually active and working. He stepped into the fires, went to reach people with God’s truth and good news whether he knew what the path looked like or not, whether he would be accepted or not. Even if it meant death he went, for he knew the Lord was always before him and with him, no matter the circumstance. And he believed with all his heart that God would provide for his needs. Paul’s confidence was not in the flesh but in the Lord. Paul struggled with anxiety, and there were fears about what was ahead of him as he served the Lord. But the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord, and being found in Christ, meant more than anything in the world. He was willing to lose it all to know Christ, to know righteousness through faith in Christ, to participate in His sufferings, to forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead, wininng the prize for which God called him heavenward (Philippians 3). “All of us who are mature in Christ should have such a view of things and not become complacent in our walk with Christ.” Philippians 3:15-16
Steps of faith are not easy, nor did God say they would be. Yet this keeps us leaning on Him and not trusting our own understanding. We use God’s strength to step out even when we don’t see the actual path in front of us, believing that He is faithful. In the context of the parable noted earlier, Jesus is reminding those listening that we do not know when our time will be up, or the hour when Jesus will return, so thinking we can wait and focus on His will another time, or turn to Him later and respect Him as King, is not the right perspective. He is King now! We have a very real enemy we face every day – Satan. If he can keep our focus inward, our fears stronger than our faith, the lies of guilt and shame louder than the grace we’ve been given, then he can keep us from using what God has given to further His kingdom.
May our lives and our walk with Christ be a light to the world that draws others to Jesus. This is the living God we serve, our beautiful Savior! And in the name of the Lord Almighty we go, every day, sharing His hope and yearning to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”