Using Talents to Witness for God

Disclaimer: the idea for this devotional did not originate with me. Instead, I heard it from one of our Sabbath School teachers at church.

How can you be a good witness for God? Be a pastor? Okay, good start. Pastors and ministers do a wonderful job of spreading the gospel, and are integral to the church. But there are a lot more church members than pastors. Let's look at Matthew 28:19-20--

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." 

Most people are probably familiar with these verses as the "Great Commission", which it is. But Jesus doesn't limit this challenge to just pastors, though they are certainly included. Jesus is including everyone in this command--that means you and me, too!

So that brings us back to our original question. If we, not just pastors, are supposed to spread the word and be good witnesses for God, then how do we do it?



Unfortunately, I can't give you an exact answer to that question. However, let's look at a few passages of Scripture and see what we can learn. First of all--there's a parable in Matthew 25, in which Jesus talks about a certain man who prepared to go on a journey. Before leaving, he sent for three of his servants, entrusting to them different amounts of money.

"To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability." 

During his absence, the servants were to put their money to good use and earn some more. (Back in those days, the money they used was called "talents".) When the man returned from his trip, he called his servants to see what they had done with the money given to them. The servant who had been given five talents, had earned five more. The servant who had been given two talents, had earned two more. But the servant to whom had been given only one talent, didn't do anything with it. That servants' master was angry with him!

This story was talking about "talents" in the sense of money, but I think the same principles also apply to our "talents", or special abilities we have. You know what they are--something you really enjoy doing, or something that you can do better than someone else. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 12:27-30--

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?

How can you use your talents to witness for God? And don't tell me that you don't have any. There are many more talents than just what Paul listed. Some I can think of just off the top of my head are being positive, smiling, encouraging, or excelling at a certain subject at school.

I honestly don't know why or how, but over the past few years I've really started to enjoy creative writing, especially here on my blog. About a year and a half ago, my mother started posting devotionals on her blog. I thought to myself, I sure wish I could do that on my blog. As I went throughout my daily life, I finally found one instance from which I could extract a spiritual lesson. I wrote it up on the computer, and several weeks later I posted it on my blog. Almost immediately, I received several e-mail responses, thanking me for that article. I believe that God prompted those people (my relatives) to encourage me, because that gave me the idea that I might be able to write another devotional. Soon after, I wrote a few more and have ever since been publishing weekly devotionals on my blog.
Since I started writing devotionals, I have had several people come up to me and say something to the effect of, "Oh, I really enjoy your blog devotionals! I read them every week!" I smile and think to myself, Wow. I had no clue they were reading the devotionals! But God had used me to witness for Him  through a way that I thought previously wasn't possible. With being on the Internet, who knows how many people are reading these devotionals!

Another unlikely way to witness for God, or so I thought, is geocaching. It's a fun sport in which a person will hide a container, and record the GPS co-ordinates of that container, publishing them (and some clues) online. Over the web, other people will download those co-ordinates and clues and then go find that container and sign a logbook inside the container. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought that God could use  me geocaching as a witness for him. Recently, I hid a cache and named it "Psalms 1:3". Now, I know "Psalms 1:3" isn't a typical name for a geocache, or that it is a well-known verse. Psalms 1:3 talks about how a righteous man is like a well-watered tree by a river. Since the geocache is in a similar situation, I thought that "Psalms 1:3" was a good name. Just a few weeks ago, someone found my cache "Psalms 1:3". As they logged their find online, they commented, "I'll have to look that verse up in the Bible."

Wow! I thought. The idea of reading some more in the Bible was placed like a seed in this person's mind, and who knows what will become of it. And all because of the title of my geocache. I was happily surprised to find that through geocaching--a sport that I didn't think was particularly spiritual--I could be a good witness for God.

So where have we gone here? We've found out that God calls more people than pastors or ministers to be good witnesses for Him. To every person God gives talents, abilities that they can use to be a good witness for Him. We all have different talents, but God can use them all for His glory if we let Him. That's how we can be good witnesses for God--through using our unique, individual talents. I highly encourage you today to sit down and take stock of what your talents, abilities, and interests are. Think about it--how can you use those talents, abilities, or interests to be a good witness for God?