Investing Your Gifts

What gifts has God given you? Talent, skills or money and property? What are you doing with your gifts? God did not give these gifts for us to hoard. They are given for us to invest. There will always be some risk involved with investing, but doing nothing with your gifts surely grieves God and brings shame to us. Earthly blessings should be invested for eternal profit.

For a real life example, let’s say God gave the gift of voice to a young woman. Now she could choose to seek fame and fortune, singing the types of lyrics and melodies that appeal to our secular society that ensure a success in record sales. Or, she could use her gift to glorify God and help others. She could still choose the route of a recording career, but steadfastly refuse to sing ungodly lyrics, even if it means less fame and fortune. If she achieves monetary success, she could invest it for the good of her fellow man. She could perform at charity events.  On the other hand, our hypothetical young woman may choose not to pursue a recording career, choosing instead to sing in her local community. Singing at churches, and other functions for living may not earn a lot, but it is a wonderful way to share a gift. People need music in their lives, especially uplifting Christian music. Many events would be enhanced with the addition of music.

Now let's talk about ourselves. No artistic talent? Can’t sing a note, or dance with any amount of grace? Me either. But we still have gifts that we can share with others. Gifts that we can use to help our church, or others in need. Even the gift of encouraging others is a wonderful thing. We all need encouragement. If you don’t think you have any obvious talent, have you ever considered what spiritual gifts God has blessed you with?  Here is a test to find out. http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/spiritual-gifts-online-assessment

We always have choices.  How do you choose to invest your gift?