Are You Using Your Talents Profitably?

WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL BY PATRICE TSAGUE

How are you using what the Lord has given you?
Have you invested your talents – or are you hiding them?
How can we apply the Parable of the Talents to our business profitably?

Are You Using Your Talents Profitably?

In Matthew 25:14-30 (The Parable of the Talents), our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ compares the Kingdom of heaven with a man who gave his servants the responsibility to steward his goods while he traveled to a faraway land. In the parable, the master represents Jesus, and the servants represent us. The goods represent the time, talent, and treasure God has given to each of us to use for His glory, according to the ability, the power, and strength that have been granted to us by Him.

As the story progresses, the one with the five talents traded his talents and gained five more. The servant with the two talents traded his talents, and he also doubled the value of his master’s goods by gaining two more. However, the servant with the one talent buried that talent under the ground. 

Upon his return, the master inquired about what the servants had done with the talents he had given them. The first servant reported, “‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them’” (Matthew 25:20). The second servant told him “‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them’” (Matthew 25:22). The master told these two servants, “‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord’” (Matthew 25:23).

But the third servant said, “‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours’” (Matthew 25:24-25).

The master responded very differently to the third servant: 

“But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away’” (Matthew 25:26-29). 

The master then ordered the unprofitable servant to be “cast into outer darkness” (Matthew 25:30).

Just like the three servants in the story, your master, the Lord Jesus Christ, has given you talents. These talents are in the form of time, talent, and treasures, and he expects you to use them for His glory, according to your God-given abilities. 

Have you identified your talents?
Have you been using them profitably and for the glory of God? 

Similar to the story of the talents, the Lord Jesus Christ will ask you what you have done with the time, talent, and treasures that He has given you. 

What will you tell Him?

My prayer for you today is that you will invest what the Lord has given you with wisdom and diligence according to your God-given abilities so that fruitfulness will result, and so that when you meet Him face to face, He can say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”