Often in life we feel stuck, defeated, limited by our circumstances. It could be an area of responsibility that we feel puts too many demands or constraints on our lives, like our job, our marriage, or our children. Or it could be an area where we feel as if we lack enough resources or wisdom to be successful, like finances, education, or time.
As we sit in our feelings of dissatisfaction and think about their source it’s easy to say, “Well, this must be God’s will for my life. After all, He is the One who gave me these children, or this husband, or this job. He’s the One who hasn’t given me a larger income or more education.” So we resign to being content with what we have and where we are since “this must be God’s will for my life.”
But the longer I walk with the Lord the more I see the freedom and flexibility God has given each of us to craft a beautiful and fulfilling life for ourselves and others, right now, in our present circumstances. Yes, we all have things we wish we could change about our circumstances, ourselves, and others. We all face limitations of some kind. But the possibilities that are open to us are far greater than our limitations. And, I believe, it is the Lord’s will for us to work with Him to create a beautiful, healthy, and productive life for ourselves and those in our circle of influence.
True change begins when we recognize God is not limiting our possibilities or our life experiences but encouraging us to live fully, right now, today – not in some distant future that we imagine will be when all of our problems are solved. God wants us to live well right in the middle of our problems, despite them. He is not limiting our options. We are. But God is often blamed for the false limitations we put on ourselves.
God is the Creator. And He created you for more, more than you are currently experiencing. I don’t know you, what you’ve been through, or what you’re currently going through. So how can I say God has more for you? Because God always has more. He is moving us from glory to glory, from one level of life to the next. He is eternal and His resources are never exhausted. We will never, in this world, be able to experience all He wants to bring into our lives. So I can confidently say, God has more for you.
But how can you know it’s good, or something you will want or enjoy? Because God is good, and if we ask Him for a fish, He won’t give us a snake. Yes, there is pain and struggle and disappointment and work involved. That’s because nothing worth having is easy or free. Everything of value has a price. And the price for what God has prepared for you is worth far more than the cost. You will never regret paying the price for living your best life in God.
It makes me sad when I think of all the wonderful things God has prepared for us, His children, things He says no eye has seen nor ear has heard, plans for a future filled with hope, yet we do not ask, or seek, or knock on His door. Why?
In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus told of a businessman, a master He calls him, who trusted part of his fortune to three of his servants. The Bible says he distributed his riches to his servants “according to the abilities of each.” To one servant he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to the third one talent.
I think it’s important to mention that one talent was a significant amount of money. A talent was equal to about 20 years’ worth of wages. It was the salary someone may expect to earn over their entire lifetime. In today’s equivalent, one talent of gold would be equal to somewhere between $600,000 to $1,000,000. That’s huge! So being given only one talent was no small thing.
The master went away for a time and on his return was pleased to discover the first two servants had wisely invested his money and doubled its value. He says to these two, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”
But the last servant, instead of investing what he had been given like the others, buried his talent in the ground. When called to give an account for what he had been given, he dug it up and gave it back to his master.
His master was not pleased. He expected his servant to do something with what he had been entrusted with. The explanation the servant gave for burying his master’s money is very telling. He said, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.”
He blamed his master for his own inactivity. My paraphrase of his reply is, “You are a hard man. I was afraid of messing up, so I did nothing.”
His master called him wicked and lazy. The talent was taken from him and given to the servant who had 10 talents, one who had proven himself faithful.
This servant didn’t spend his master’s money to fulfill his own desires. He didn’t use it to live a lavish lifestyle or risk it in shady business schemes. His fault was he did nothing at all. And that, according to his master, was what made him wicked and lazy.
This unfaithful servant had been given a huge fortune and free agency to invest that fortune any way he chose. Such trust! Such freedom! His master was generous and trusting.
But he didn’t understand the heart of his master. He saw his master as a taker, not a giver. He saw him as a tyrant. So he used his distorted view of his master to justify doing nothing with what he had been given. He didn’t value the gift nor did he know the heart of the giver.
He let fear stop him from moving forward. It can be scary to move out into new areas and take risks that can backfire. What if he had made a bad decision and lost all of his master’s money?
Would that outcome have been any worst than his punishment for doing nothing?
Of his excuse of fear the master says, “If you feared me so much, why didn’t you do something with what I gave you?”
We can either let fear motivate us to action or paralyze us in inaction. It depends on what we fear more. Do we fear failure more than we fear the Lord?
God has set up this world so that those who are faithful to invest and develop what He has given them will find His good pleasure, and find joy and fulfillment in their faithfulness, first in this life and then in the one to come. God rewards those who highly value what He has given them and are diligent and hard-working in investing those resources.
I want to stress here that I’m not speaking solely in terms of monetary resources. I think our minds seem to automatically think of finances when we talk about valuable resources because that’s an easy way for us to visualize investing something of worth to see a return. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons Jesus used talents, a financial term, in this parable, but His gifts to us are much farther reaching and valuable than finances alone.
One day we will all stand before the Lord to give an account of our life and what we have done with what we have been given. Your life is of unfathomable value. Invest it in things that matter, not just in this life but in the one to come.
If you let the fear of failure keep you from taking any risk that may result in failure, you are burying your life in the ground. Don’t do that. The greatest failure isn’t trying and failing, but never trying at all.
Fear is an obstacle to be overcome, not an excuse to never move forward.
The master in this parable saw past the excuses. He saw that the servant’s real issue was not his fear, but his heart. He didn’t want to obey so he used fear as an excuse to do nothing and he blamed his master for his inactivity.
It’s okay to not know exactly what you are supposed to be doing for the Kingdom. It’s okay to not clearly understand at the moment what you have been given by God or how you are supposed to be investing it. It’s okay not to know exactly how everything is going to work out. No one does. But don’t stay stuck and frustrated, believing that all the limitations that steal your joy are God’s will for your life. Find out what God is asking of you. Discover what resources He has given you. Ask Him to show you what He has put into your hand, then ask Him how you can work to invest in and develop those gifts and talents for His Kingdom.
Pray. Ask for wisdom. Then make plans. Submit those plans to God. And move forward in faith.
Ask God to redirect your path if your plans do not line up with His will for your life. Then move out. Do it. Push past the fear. Commit and carry out what you believe God is calling you to do with your life, even if you don’t know every step of the way. You will never know every step of the way. Do not sit and wait for absolute certainty before you make a move. You will end up doing nothing with what God has given you because you didn’t want to make a mistake.
Think in terms of possibilities. Think about what excites you. Is there something you would love to do for God but feel you could never do? Commit it to prayer. Ask for His wisdom. Make plans to test the waters. Do something about it, even if it’s a very small step. Be about your Father’s business. Don’t bury your life. It’s of great value. Invest in yourself and invest yourself in the Kingdom.
The Father is cheering for you, and so am I.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the gift of life you have given me. I recognize it is of great value. Please open my eyes to see all the resources you have placed in my hands. Give me the wisdom to know how to use what you have given me to bring your light into this world.
Help me to push past the fear I feel and take responsibility for crafting a beautiful life that is a blessing to You, myself and others.
I ask you to stir my heart and imagination with ideas of how I can use the gifts, talents, and resources you have given me to serve you and others. Show me opportunities where I see obstacles. Let me see possibilities where I see problems.
Help me to take risks, even if there is a possibility I may fail. Teach me not to be afraid of failure but to learn from my mistakes. Point me in the right direction as I move forward by faith.
My life belongs to you. Please help me invest it in your Kingdom.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
