\u201cFor we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.\u201d \u00a0Ephesians 2:10 CSB
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I saw this interesting analogy on Facebook recently:
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A bar of iron costs $5, made into horseshoes it\u2019s worth $12, made into needles, it\u2019s worth $3500, made into balancing springs for watches, it\u2019s worth $300,000. Your own value is determined by what you are able to make of yourself. Author Unknown
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How true it is. It\u2019s up to us each individually to use the gifts God has given us. There are spiritual gifts such as exhortation, giving, leadership, hospitality, teaching, discernment, faith, healing, wisdom to name a few. Each of us has been given a very special set of gifts we are to share with those around us. Just as the bar of iron starts out at a net worth of $5, the more it is used in individual, specific ways, the more it\u2019s value increases.
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Jesus talks about this in the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30. Each servant was given talents. Talents are monetary units that equal about 20 years worth of labor. The first was given 5 talents, the next 2 talents and the last 1 talent. The first two invested their portions and increased them for their Master; they both doubled their portions. The third buried his and didn\u2019t use it to make any money. When the Master returned, he was furious that he had done nothing with it. As a result, he took the 1 talent away and gave it to the his first servant who had 10 talents. The third servant is like the bar of iron, he had the opportunity to become so much more, but instead, he stayed exactly the same.
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What gift has God given you that you aren\u2019t using? \u00a0If you don\u2019t know, there are great Spiritual Gift tests for free online to help you know what yours are. \u00a0God has given you everything you need to reach your full potential. He\u2019s there to help you achieve whatever it may be. \u00a0A favorite author of mine, Erwin McManus, puts it this way:
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\u201cGod can do the work, but He will not do for you what you\u2019re not willing to step into for yourself.\u201d
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Don\u2019t be afraid. Use the gifts God has given you, with Him working with you, the sky’s the limit.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cFor we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.\u201d \u00a0Ephesians 2:10 CSB I saw this interesting analogy on Facebook recently: A bar of iron costs $5, made into horseshoes it\u2019s worth $12, made into needles, it\u2019s worth $3500, made into balancing springs… Continue reading MAY YOU KNOW YOUR GIFTS AND USE THEM<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":716,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}