Are You About to Lose the Gifts God Has Given You?

My brother and I, who interestingly have a 10-year age gap, are constantly teasing, play-hitting or sharing a joke and a laugh (or ten), but on the odd day, we have important conversations about important things. One such rare day was yesterday when we went from gossiping (oops) about specific family members, to talking about gifts. 

He opened up to me about how he used to dream a lot when he was younger, where God revealed lots of things to him. But when – as a lot of us tend to do – he failed to take the time to sit with God and work on interpreting those dreams, they soon stopped. However, he found that when he takes some time out to fast and pray now, the revelations through dreams come back. 

Then, he said something which really caught my attention. It wasn’t something I hadn’t heard before but it, all of a sudden, sounded fresh in my ears and almost undoubtedly seemed like it was a message targeted at me. He said, “That’s the thing about your God-given gifts. If you don’t use them, God will eventually take them away. Not because He’s mean or out of wickedness, but because He feels they will be of better use somewhere else.” 

Woah. Shots fired at my heart. Because I’d been slacking in using my own gifts – especially using writing to tell people about God and help them grow a deep relationship with Him (if you catch my drift).

What natural talents, gifts and skills have you been wasting? Let’s be clear about something: ‘God-given gifts’ don’t necessarily mean preaching, being on the worship team at church, or some church activity or another. Using your natural people skills to excel at your customer service job is using your gift. If God has given you the ability to cook wonderfully, being an excellent chef is making use of your talents. 

Serving in church does not mean serving your purpose. Every gift you have – however basic or ‘un-holy’ you think it is – is given by God, and once it’s being used in a way that makes God happy, you’re making good use of it. 

Let’s make a commitment to stop wasting what we’ve been blessed with and equipped to do. Protect your gift.