New You: Stepping Out in Faith
Week 2, Day 1 Devotionals
1. Read: Matthew 25:14-30
2. Who do the master and the three servants represent?
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3. What is a 'talent' - in the parable, and in our modern contexts?
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4. What is the significance that each was given “according to his ability”? And what is the difference between the reactions of the two faithful servants and the reaction of the unfaithful servant? Is there one quality which seems to you to be most important?
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5. God has given each one of us at least one great gift, and what we do with that gift matters. We can open our gift and use it, or we can bury it away. A question every Christian must answer is “What will I do with my gift?” Will you bury it in the ground, or will you step out in faith and multiply your gift like the other two servants in obedient service to the Lord?
6. Here are 5 Lessons we can take from the Parable of the Talents:
- We are asked to work. God wants us to work, using our talents to glorify Him, serve others, and further His kingdom. Real success comes from working diligently in our lives, using all the talents God has given us to the best of our ability.
- God gives us everything we need to do everything He has called us to do. In the parable, the master expected his servants to do more than passively preserve what they had been given. Likewise, God expects us to use our talents productively. The servants were given enough to produce more, and it is the same with the gifts God has given us.
Ephesians 2:10:
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We don’t often associate this verse with our work, but we should.
- We are not all created equal. The master understood that the one-talent servant was not capable of producing as much as the five-talent servant. This may seem unfair, but we see all around us that diversity is a part of creation. We may not be created equally in regard to the talents we are given, but we can find equality in this parable. The fact is, it takes just as much work for the five-talent servant to produce five more talents as it does the two-talent servant to produce two more. And notice: the reward the master gives is the same. Success was measured by the master by degrees of effort, and this is how we, too, should measure our success.
- We work for the master, not ourselves. The money given to the servants was not their own. Likewise, the talents, resources, gifts, and abilities we have received are not our own to store away, bury, or hide. We should maximize the use of our talents - not for our own gain or ambition - but to honor God. We should feel satisfaction and joy from doing our best with what God has given, in the life situations that He in his wisdom has placed us, in order to honor him.
- Finally, we will be held accountable for our lives. The unfaithful steward in this parable didn’t so much waste the master’s money – he wasted an opportunity. God wants us to not miss any opportunity in using our talents, gifts, and abilities to serve and honor Him.
You have God-given talents and abilities that God is holding you accountable to use. Can you close your time today by sitting quietly with God, considering what these talents may be? Are you using the gifts God has given you to the best of your ability? How do you feel about your stewardship of those gifts?
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Blessings
Kelly :)
