Talents | Are We Using Them to Glorify God?

God imparts talents—gifts and callings—within each of us, and no matter if we are following Him or not, we are allowed to keep them. But even when we follow God, that does not automatically mean that we are using our talents to glorify Him and further His Kingdom…

Join us below as we discover the importance of using our talents to glorify God and how doing so brings multiplication!

Talents

Romans 11:29 says, “…the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

This Scripture reminds us that God does not give talents—gifts and callings—only to those who believe in Him and seek His Kingdom purposes. No, it says that these gifts are irrevocable! Nothing we do can earn them, and nothing we do can undo them. This is important, not only for unbelievers, but for all of us, because, as the Word reminds us in Romans 3:23, we are not perfect. Everyone has sinned. Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God. And if God only gave and let us keep talents based on completely sinless behavior every moment of our lives, then frankly, none of us would have any talents.

Thankfully God is generous, allowing us to have and keep the talents necessary for our call. But it is only when we are aligned with God that the full depth and richness of these talents can be experienced. It is only in Him that complete fulfillment can be found. Because in Him, we use our talents for their true intention.

When we align with God’s ways, using our talents for good, we become like the good servants in Jesus’ parable of the talents (see Matthew 25:14-30), who took what was given to their care and increased it! Yes, Jesus used money as an example in this parable, but while it does speak of money, it is not the only point. It is about God’s Kingdom principles. And about taking care of what God gives us…

James 1:17 Bible verse written on multicolored wooden planks.

God gives us many things. He gives us money, as the master did in Jesus’ parable. He gives us His Spirit. Time. Talents (gifts and callings). Every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). And with these we can do a few things…

We can:

  • Go off and completely use up what we were given on whatever we desire
  • Bury them and thereby give them no purpose or fullness—being ‘safe’
  • Follow God’s will, ways, and Word, multiplying that which we were given and thereby increasing and blessing God’s Kingdom

By choosing this last and best option, we enter into a biblical principle. Multiplication. Where, just like our God, we take something and increase it, so that there is an abundance. This aligned multiplication of what God gives us blesses His Kingdom, glorifies Him, and brings light to the darkness! But while it blesses those God puts directly or indirectly in our path… it also blesses us—like the servants who were faithful being put in charge of much!

Yet, as with the servants in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25, who were given talents, the QUANTITY of talents and the LEVEL of multiplication may vary. Even among those who have chosen to serve God.

This is not a matter of God having favorites, or certain people being more important than others. It is about God knowing what each of us can handle. What each of us will be able to multiply effectively…

Each of the servants in Jesus’ parable were given what they could multiply, and so ALL of the servants should have been able to take what was given and multiply it! What is more, based on the level of multiplication achieved by those servants who acted, they all should have doubled what they were given. 

This ability to multiply was as true for the servant who was given the single talent as it was for the servant who was given five. But, because the servant who was given a single talent did not put the effort into multiplying it, instead burying it, there was no increase. No one else was blessed by it, and in the end, even what that servant had been given was taken from him, and given to the one with the most…

“So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.”

—Matthew 25:28
Text repeating the phrase more of God less of me to remind us to be using our talents to glorify god.

When we do not multiply the talents God gives us, no one is blessed and we ourselves often end up walking in lack. Sometimes this failure to multiply is prompted by fear. Other times by laziness. Or even, at other times, by a desire to glorify ourselves rather than God…

While we may desire to multiply what God gives us, it is easy to give in to a false narrative. Because multiplication means we have to trust in God and in God’s ability to use us. It means that we cannot remain where we are comfortable. We have to go out and do what God tells us to do with the talents He has given us! But when God pushes us out of our comfort zone, we do not always realize that God has put the necessary talents within us to keep us from falling. 

It takes trust, faith in God’s plans, and a desire to multiply what God gives us—to leave things better than we find them—but when we align with Him and step out with intention, our faithfulness produces amazing things! It multiplies!

“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’”

—Matthew 25:21

Time to Multiply!

Unlike the wicked servant in Jesus’ parable of Matthew 25:14-30, we may not be burying the talents God has given us, but are we using them to glorify God? Is His will, His Name, and His Kingdom consciously in our decisions? Are we prayerfully considering not only our actions, but the heart attitudes behind them? 

Are we seeking to multiply what we have been given?

When our passion is to follow after God… To serve Him, His Kingdom, and His people as we have been made able, then multiplication becomes a key factor. God desires an increase of His Kingdom, not for His own sake alone, but indeed, for our sakes as well… because He does not desire that any should perish but that all would have eternal life! He loves us, and as His people we are meant to grow His Kingdom with this desire and love in mind… His Kingdom has to grow toward this aim.

Yes, we are not all called to be pastors, rabbis, or even directly in the Church Mountain—aside from the level everyone is called to be involved at—but we are all in full-time ministry. We have each been given talents—gifts and callings—and they are meant to be used! Sometimes there are seasons where they lay dormant as God increases them in secret or builds up those areas of character necessary to utilize the talents to the fullest. But even in those quiet times, where it can feel like we have no purpose, God is using us.

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

—Matthew 5:14-16

Every place God sends us, the gifts and calling He has placed within us fill in the pieces of God’s Kingdom puzzle—spiritually, physically, emotionally. And even during those quiet seasons, we are always able to be a light. A sign of God’s love, kindness, mercy, and ways. There is always purpose.

The Master of our story has given us beautiful talents. He has set us with purpose and the opportunity to use the gifts of His love to multiply them. We have an unprecedented opening to further God’s Kingdom. To take what He gives us—one talent, two, or five—and bring forth a multiplication! To create an abundance!

“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

—Luke 6:38
Click here to find out what your Godly strength is.

Multiplication takes action. It requires us to set aside all fear and doubt to step forward. To give of what we have been given so that God’s Kingdom increases…

And when we do so. When we walk in boldness with our eyes fixed on God, we, and so many others within God’s Kingdom, are blessed. Because with the measure we use—until it runs over, overflowing in us! This is God’s mathematics. Where love and acting upon that love… Where faith and acting upon that faith… bring the multiplication of every good and perfect gift.