Living a Ten-Talents-Plus Life — Dianne Barker here with encouragement for your day. Recently I wrote about the parable of the talents—such a familiar story that I sometimes trivialize its impact. Reading the story again (Matthew 25:14-30) gave me fresh inspiration to live a ten-talents-plus life.
Quick review: a man who was going on a journey entrusted his property to his servants, giving five talents to one, two talents to another, and just one talent to a third man. Those who received five talents and two talents invested, doubling their money. The one-talent servant, fearful, hid his in the ground.
When the master returned, he praised the first two servants and rewarded them. But he rebuked the other man, calling him wicked, lazy, and worthless for not investing the money. He took the one talent away from him and gave it to the servant with ten talents.
The Lord has given each of us gifts—a variety to accomplish the purpose for which he created us.
Have you ever felt he wasn’t fair when he distributed our gifts?
Someone else received more…and those seem much more significant than ours. How can we ever achieve anything worthwhile with such a meager gift?
The longer we consider our inadequacy, the faster our discontent grows. We feed the discontent until it paralyzes us.
Failing to use what we have received puts us in bad company—commiserating with the servant who buried his talent. I don’t want to spend time with him or his buddies!
I’ve made a decision. I’ll invest my one talent. When it doubles, I’ll invest again. And I’ll keep on doing that because I’m going for a ten-talents-plus life.
What about you?
“For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him” (Matthew 25:29).
Dianne Barker is a speaker, radio host, and author of 11 books, including the best-selling Twice Pardoned. She’s a member of Christian Authors Network, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and Christian Women in Media Association. Visit www.diannebarker.com.
