We will realise how good God is through this topic! He bestowed us gifts and talents when we were born into this world. Consequently, God has given us life as one of his gifts.
However, the majority of individuals today have wasted, squandered, and utilised the gifts that God gave them in ways that led them to sin. Instead of doing it for the glory of God, it is done for the gratification of man. Unfortunately, self is exalted instead of our God.
One of the things we see about individuals nowadays is that they have talents, such as being incredibly gifted at dancing, singing, sketching, painting, etc.; nevertheless, these abilities are often used to gain fame, to earn the admiration and amusem*nt of others, and particularly to be idolised by others, like what one might observe today on social media or elsewhere in the globe. It is so appealing to the human eye that it influences a great multitude of people. In the eyes of man, something is extremely admirable, but in the eyes of God, it is incredibly disgraceful.
God gave us gifts, not so that we could be arrogant about them, but rather so that He might use them for His glory, which is what pleases Him. However, it grieves God's heart when we use our gifts for evil activities or only for selfish purposes to achieve happiness and please people. Our goal should be to inspire people to be closer to God instead of trying to persuade others to follow the devil, who is the reason they will end up in hell. Because of this, we must maintain firm thinking and live in a manner consistent with this verse:
PHILIPPIANS 4:8-9 (NLT)
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
God also gives spiritual gifts to those who have been born again or renewed in the Spirit, but the specific gifts He bestows are up to Him. In addition, God's free gift to mankind is eternal life through Jesus Christ.
ROMANS 6:23 (NLT)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 CORINTHIANS 12:4-6 (NLT)
4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
1 CORINTHIANS 12:7-11 (NLT)
7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
The Kingdom of Heaven is similar to this story. The verse reads as follows:
MATTHEW 25:14-15 (NLT)
14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.
MATTHEW 25:16-20 (NLT)
16 “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. 17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’
MATTHEW 25:21-23 (NLT)
21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’22 “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’23 “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
MATTHEW 25:24-27 (NLT)
24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, 27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’
MATTHEW 25:28-30 (NLT)
28 “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
The Kingdom of Heaven is exactly like this story of the three servants. God appointed His servants and entrusted them with the spiritual gifts He endowed in accordance with each person's capacities. Even God, who is in heaven, trusted those slaves with the spiritual gifts He provided them for His kingdom while they were on this earth. When He comes back, He will call everyone of His trusted servants to account for how they have used the spiritual gifts He has given them.
God, however, observes human behaviour, particularly that of His servants, even if He has not yet come back to earth. Hence, He will cause them to expand as soon as He sees that you are using the gifts He has given you for His kingdom. More people will benefit from your gifts if you develop or grow them. God will then grant you extra responsibilities or gifts once He determines that you are obedient in that regard. Therefore, as what you bring to that duty grows, so will the number of individuals who stand to gain.
Nevertheless, God will take whatever things you get for His Kingdom from those slaves who fail to use them, no matter how small, and give them to another servant who does. The servant who is faithful to the one who uses spiritual gifts for His glory will receive more gifts. Once the Lord comes back to this world, everyone will be held accountable for how they use the abilities He entrusted to them.
Therefore, if you go before God without investing the gifts He has given you for His kingdom—things you have just concealed in the world or neglected to use because you were afraid, lazy, etc.—especially your actions, words, thoughts, or desires, they are not in line with God's. Naturally, if a person doesn't serve God, they are working for the adversary (Satan). If so, that is similar to the parable. He will tell you: "YOU WICKED AND LAZY SERVANT!" Along with that, he would add, "Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
MATTHEW 13:41-43 (NLT)
41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!
REVELATION 20:14-15 (NLT)
14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. 15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.
However, God will be praised if He sees that we are trustworthy with the resources He has given us and that we use them wisely for His glory. So for every task we complete on earth, God ought to be able to congratulate us and say, "WELL DONE, MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT." YOU HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL IN HANDLING THIS SMALL AMOUNT, SO NOW I WILL GIVE YOU MANY MORE RESPONSIBILITIES. "Let's celebrate together!"
MATTHEW 24:45-51 (NLT)
45 “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. 46 If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. 47 I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. 48 But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ 49 and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? 50 The master will return unannounced and unexpected, 51 and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Thus, whatever gifts you receive from God, use them for His kingdom and don't waste or abuse them because, no matter how little you receive, if God sees that you are trustworthy in those things, He will make the given gift grow in you, He will develop the gifts that you have not yet discovered, and He will give you more. The purpose of every gift given to us by God is to bring Him glory and to fulfil His purposes. Additionally, one of our goals in this life is to please God, and this is what gives us strength.
All of our efforts have paid off, so everything is worthwhile. If we truly love God, we will put His happiness before our own. God created us to bring him joy; we were not intended to cause him heartbreak. Similar to Noah's period, when He was deeply grieved and regretted creating man due to the immorality of the time, He was in pain if things didn't make Him pleased. But because God is merciful, compassionate, and filled with unfailing love, He sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from sin or wickedness and give us human beings eternal life.
ROMANS 12:6-8 (NLT)
6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
1 PETER 4:10-11 (NLT)
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
