The Wild Flowers

I tell you not to worry about your life. Don't worry about having something to eat, drink, or wear. Isn't life more than food or clothing? Look at the birds in the sky! They don't plant or harvest. They don't even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren't you worth more than birds? Can worry make you live longer? 

Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don't work hard to make their clothes. But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn't as well clothed as one of them. God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith? 

Don't worry and ask yourselves, "Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have clothes to wear? Only people who don't know God are always worrying about such things. You Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well. 

 (Matthew 6: 25-34) 

Are we Using our Talents?

  "No one can arrive from being talented alone. God gives talent, work transforms talent into genius." 

Anna Pavlova ~ Russian ballerina

The quote above really is true. We usually know what talents God has blessed us with, but we often fail to follow through and use them. Our God-given talents won't get us very far if we don't put action to them.

This quote made me think about the parable of the talents in Matthew 25: 14-30. The first two servants invested their talents and gained more, but the third servant was afraid and hid his talent in the ground. The last servant was called lazy and wicked for not using what his master had entrusted to his care. 

How often we are like the lazy servant? I wonder how many things never get done for the kingdom of God because of wasted talents. Sometimes it's a matter of just being afraid to step out of our comfort zones and use what God gifted us with. Other times life gets in the way. We get busy and distracted by things that have little eternal value in the big scheme of things. With technology today consuming more and more of our time, I think we often spend hours doing things that really don't matter, such as checking facebook and responding to numerous text messages. While there's nothing wrong or sinful about these things, we need to ask ourselves if they are keeping us from using our time in wiser and more constructive ways.

 God indeed does give us our talent, but we have to move forward and do the work to make those talents accomplish what God desires to do in each of our lives. Being talented truly doesn't get us anywhere if we don't put forth the hard work and effort and use it.