I must always remember, Lord, that my talent is my liability. When I invest money in a savings bank, that money is not the bank’s asset but its liability— it is owed to me. So it is with any talent God gives me; it does not belong to me but to the people for whom God intended it.
Worldly people tend to be deceived about that. If God blesses their businesses, they take the credit; if God gives them good health, they attribute it to taking good care of themselves; if God gives them obedient, responsive children, it is because they as parents set a good example. Thus, even their goodness is corrupted by self-deceit.
Paul has a word here: “Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive [from God]?” (1 Corinthians 4:7, NIV). These are pertinent questions that I am obligated to answer. If God has bestowed anything special upon me, I must first acknowledge that it came from Him. and then use it as it was intended—to bless and lift up others. The only “asset” I have is the obligation of God, His promise to save me for His eternal glory. Any natural gifts or endowments I may have are my obligation, under God, to others
Paul says, “I am debtor” (Romans 1:14, KJV), which puts it concisely. All Paul was he “owed” to others, and he did not take his talent and bury it in the ground. The only way my gifts can live, thrive, and prosper is by Using them for others. Kept for myself, they—and I— will die. The deadness that we find so stifling in the world is not the deadness of inactivity, but the deadness of accumulation—“I must look out for number one.” On the contrary, Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over” (Luke 6:38).
“For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:7–8).
Daily with the King 