Day 27: Matthew 25
HIDDEN TREASURE
When we look at this parable, we see a king who has given his servants money and tells them to do something with it. When we look at this, I believe we need to take a good look at everything that God has given us. In the parable, the worst reaction here is the servant who did nothing, who sat on what he had.
There are probably two reasons that we aren't very proactive in making sure we make the most of what God has given us. Firstly, and primarily, I think we're afraid to fail. Society places a high value on 'success' and sometimes it's safer to not try things than to try and potentially fail. Secondly, we often sit back and take things easy. I don't know about you, but so often I need a bit of a shove to get myself going, either from God or from someone else. As we look at this parable, I'd like us to look at 3 areas where we can look at what is in our hand that can be used for God's glory; our finances, our time, and our gifting or skills.
Finances
We've talked about finances a lot already. That's because Jesus has a lot to say about it. We can look at our lives and think we've got less than we really have. As we look at verse 34 onwards, we see the challenge laid down to us in terms of reaching out to others. Jesus calls us to look at what we can do for the homeless, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick and imprisoned.
We live in an unbalanced world, where society would tell us to buy as much nice stuff as we can. I believe Jesus would call us to a radical way of living, taking an honest, painful look at what we do for the 'least' in our world. I know that's not popular, but I believe that's the way Jesus would have us spend our money. It'll be painful, and sacrificial, and I almost certainly will fail to live up to it, but I desperately want to live my life trying to do it.
Time
So often, quiet times, or church ministry, or time spent with people can be the first thing that we let drop when we feel tired or busy. I don’t know about you, but I never feel too tired to watch TV or sit on the laptop. We’ve seen previously that Jesus always had time for people. On an average week, we probably have about 110-120 hours awake. God wants to be central to all parts of those, but often we squeeze him out.
God wants us to live in constant relationship with Him, but I believe that as part of that, it’s important for us to sacrifice our time for things. That will mean something different for us all, but it’s important that we get out of our own homes and interact with people in some way.
As we think about how we can use our time better, and what we can do to serve God with the hours we have, it’s important to figure out what we’re passionate about, and what skills or gifting we feel God has given us.
Gifting
I believe it's important that we look at the different abilities and attributes that God has created us with, to see if we are really using those. I recently heard someone say that most Christians don’t get to use their main talents on a regular basis.
If you're not sure what you're good at ask someone what they think. I know it feels arrogant, but try to work it out. You could think of practical skills that you might have, or emotional attributes. List a couple of things that you come up with, and then try to see how these are currently being used in your life. If you feel they're not being used, then commit them to God, asking what He can do with them, how they can be used.
I would urge you to sit down and write some of this stuff out. If you're anything like me, you'll think about some of this stuff, and it'll drift out of your mind and you forget about it. As you commit things to paper, they can seem a bit more permanent and it just might help you take them seriously. As we sit and work out our passions, our skills, we may find people who care about similar things and out of that God may birth new ideas which change lives.
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