If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

* * * * * 

Most of you are familiar with my book series, The Called. The premise of each of the books is that each person was an “ordinary” person who God used in an extraordinary way. God only works in extraordinary ways! And we are all very ordinary before Him. But by His grace, and in His sovereignty, God has chosen to work through each of us. As the apostle Paul reminds us, God has created each of us uniquely and given us different gifts. But the extraordinary work He intends to accomplish through each of us is not dependent upon which gifts or talents He has given us, it is dependent upon our faithfulness to use whatever He has given us, and our availability to be guided by His Holy Spirit.

Jesus often used parables in His teaching. Perhaps one of the best remembered of those parables is the “Parable of the Talents,” in which He teaches that very point. In the parable, the master did not apportion his talents equally to his servants. He gave more to some and less to others. But he entrusted them all. He was the determiner of what and how much would be given to each. He was a wise master. He knew their abilities. In many ways, he knew them better than they knew themselves. He knew that too much could overwhelm, and too little would undertax their ability. Thus, he entrusted each proportionate with their ability. And then he left – for a long time.