Are You Managing Your God-Given Assets?
Are you a good asset manager of the talents, learned skills, and experiences God gave you? Have you identified the spiritual gifts God has given you through the Holy Spirit?
Parable of the Talents
The scripture most often quoted about how we handle our God-given assets is the Parable of the Talents found in Matthew’s Gospel. The servant who didn’t properly use the talents given him was called a worthless servant to be cast into the outer darkness.
The Lord leaves no doubt he wants us to use the personal assets he has given us. And he makes it crystal clear, properly using our personal assets will help us fulfill our God-given purpose and bring great benefits to us and others.
You need to deploy, operate, maintain, and upgrade.
Asset management refers to anything done to monitor and maintain things of value. The term is most often used when talking about financial holdings, buildings, and intangible assets. In this context, how well your assets are managed depends on how well your assets are deployed, operating, maintained, and upgraded.
A Three-Step Process
Determining how well you manage your God-given assets is a simple three-step process.
First, take inventory of your assets, your abilities, learned skills, significant life experiences, and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Next, look at how you have deployed these assets over the years and how you might better do so in the future. Determine if you maximized what you were capable of doing.
Third, explore the ways you have pursued education and other opportunities to maintain and improve the skills God allowed you to acquire. Once you complete your asset management review, you should do what every good manager does, design a plan to improve.
Your Spiritual Assets
Identify the way you can use, maintain, maximize, and continually upgrade your assets, especially your spiritual assets. One of the best ways to make sure you are making the most of your God-given assets is to practice the spiritual disciplines, including meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, submission, service, confession, and worship.
Managing Your Christian Walk
The spiritual disciplines are not legalistic rules, but tools to bring you closer to God. While adherence to the disciplines is not necessary for salvation, they should be a central part of helping you manage your God-given assets in your Christian walk.
Additional reading:
Listen to God’s Words
We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; (Romans 12:6-8)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7-8)
Also read: Psalm 119:97, Psalm 119:11, 2 Timothy 1:7
In the Words of Others
“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’” Erma Bombeck
“Our talents are the gift that God gives to us...What we make of our talents is our gift back to God.” Leo F. Buscaglia
“Time and health are two precious assets that we don't recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted.” Denis Waitley
Think About It
Identify God-given assets that most influenced your personal or professional life. What do you think the Lord is telling you about your life purpose and his calling for you?
Read Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. Prayerfully consider what gifts of the Spirit you may have received and the fruits they’ve born in your life.
Describe how you have deployed your God-given assets. Have you used them or ignored them? Consider ways you could improve.
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