Investing What We've Been Given
By: Kristen L. McNulty
Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.
One of my favourite stories in the Bible is the Parable of the Talents. Maybe you're familiar with it. Basically the story is told that a master decides to leave to go on an extended trip. In his absence he gives his three servants three different amounts of money to invest on his behalf. The first servant is given five talents (or as some translations refer to it bags of gold), the second servant is given two and the third servant is given one.
The first and second servants go out and invest what they've been given. Both end up doubling what they have. The third servant on the other hand buries what he has and ends up having nothing to show for it when his master returns and asks him to account for what he did with what he was given.
I know hearing this story it's easy to remove it from ourselves and leave it as just being another story. But the message of the Parable of the Talents is something that you and I should be thinking about every single day of our lives.
The Bible tells us that
"God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well." (Romans 12:6 NLT). The Bible also teaches us in the Parable of the Talents that one day we are going to stand before God and He's going to ask us to account for how we used what He gave us.
My question for you is today if you had to stand before God and account for how you've been spending your time, money and talents, what would you say?
Would you stumble through a list of excuses as you looked back over wasted opportunities, unused gifts, and selfishly horded money?
Or would you be able to stand before God and say that you honored Him with everything that you had- whether that was your time, your money, your talents or your relationships?
The truth is our ability to account for our lives before God then on that day is directly related to how we live our lives today. Today is not just another day meant to drift on by us. Today is a day to be lived with purpose.
I don't know about you but when I stand before God I want to have something to show for my life here on earth. I want it to be said that my life had an influence on those around me and that my efforts did change the course of eternity for some. And above all, I want to hear those precious words
"well done good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:23). But I'm not going to get there unless I'm faithful with everything I have here and the same goes for you.
How we live today is going to effect the answer we're able to give when we stand at the door of eternity. Something to think about.
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