DON’T KEEP THAT GIFT IDLE

 

Everyone is gifted but the statistics of those leaving life with unused gifts is alarming. The gifts were supposed to define the way of living life for men on earth or add some quality to the standard of living but the carriers of these gifts headed out without a bit of their gifts finding use. The result thus is that society remains the way it is.

Your gift is not for you, it is for life. You have it because you are the means it is supposed to be released for life. Keeping it to yourself means you are cheating life and yourself too.

Every gift is meant to define you. Living less than the possibilities of your gift is not the purpose of God for you. He wants you to express every gift he has handed over to you and to be an expression of the gifts. You are supposed to be defined by your gifts as you work to define it.

Imagine if David the psalmist had hidden his song writing gift, we could not have had the psalms we enjoy today. If Solomon had kept idle his wisdom, the books of proverbs and Ecclesiastes would not have been available for us to read, but they chose not to keep their gifts to themselves. They wrote what they were inspired to write and many generations down the line, about three thousand years after; we are still enjoying their master pieces. Many of David’s psalms are songs we sing today and Solomon’s proverbs and Ecclesiastes are today’s wisdom books.

God has given you that voice, that writing gift, that strength, that wisdom because it is meant for service. But some persons think it can’t be God. God said in Exodus 31: 1- 6 “see I have called by name Bezaleel and the son of Uri, son of Hur of the tribe of Judah and I have filled him with the spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and craftsmanship to device artistic designs to work on gold, silver and bronze in cutting stones for setting and in carrying wood for work in every craft. And behold I have appointed with him Ohaliab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan and I have given to all able men ability that they may make all I have commanded you.

The reason God gave these persons these gifts and abilities was for usefulness. He gave you your gifts too so that you can be useful with them to do what some other person cannot do.

Some persons celebrate their gifts in secret. They celebrate their capacity to write, to sing, to work art, to play instruments but no one knows them for their gifts because they’ve not expressed it for others to see. While they celebrate themselves in the comfort of their homes, they doubt if they have sufficient capacity to face the crowd out there. Thus the gifts remain the best in their rooms.

David was a gifted instrumentalist and this was no secret. When Saul was infested with an evil spirit, his servants who had heard David play advised Saul to get David. 1 Samuel 16:14-20 says “now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. And Saul’s servants said to him, behold no, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you, let our lord now command your servant who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre and when the evil spirit from the Lord is upon you, he will play and you will be well. So Saul said to his servant, provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me. One of the young men answered, behold I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlemite who is skillful in playing, a man of valour, a man of war, prudent in speech and a man of good presence and the Lord is with him. Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me David your son who is with the sheep.

David’s gifts created an opportunity for him at the king’s palace, but he had to be known by it somewhere. This means that though David was a shepherd boy who catered for his father’s sheep, he was also finding time to play his instruments of music when he was not in the valleys where people could see him.

Your gift is designed to make room for you but room is created only where you are using the gift and people are aware you are using it. You’ve got to come out of your closet and find opportunities to express it outside your immediate sphere.

Some person may say, I have no money to make these gift what it has to be. Money isn’t often the problem with gifts. Express it just the way it is, when you really need money, it will arrive. If you can write, write. You may need money to publish a book but you don’t need much to write in blogs. If you can sing, sing. You don’t have to create an album first, you can sing in your church, and even write a song for your choir to sing. You have to start somewhere.

Don’t let that gift be waste. Don’t let it be said that you once lived on this side of life and you were absolutely gifted but nothing was heard of you. Don’t let the world miss your impact. Let the world celebrate you, that you gave her everything that is in you.