Matthew 24:14-30 The Parable of the Talents

Cell was on the topic of using our talents wisely. Gonna just write this down to keep track of my Bible studying haha.

What I've learnt from this passage is

• God gives each of us talents according to our own ability (v15)

There's no use comapring with people who "has much more". I used to envy how people always had talents that earned them approval from people - music, dance, art and the list goes on. I was terrible at these things. I never went past grade 1 piano, danced with 2 left feet, and always had my art pieces being looked down on. Always told my parents I never had any talents haha. Used to really wish I had or at least was good at one of them. But this verse reminded me, God gives us as much as He deems necessary. This includes our workload too. No point trying to see how much better people are in their jobs, or how attractive their jobs are, because where you are right now is right where God has placed you. He doesn't give me any more, any less, but just enough for me to handle EVERYTHING. The necessary talents to complete the job are also God given, as He deems fit.

• We have the freewill to choose what we want to do with our talents

We can choose to multiply our talents like the two servants, or choose to bury it like the foolish servant. The choice is ours. That's exactky how God created the world. He gave us free will, it's up to us to live a life according to His will or just do what you want to do with your life.

• What we do with our talents reflects how well we know our master who gave us those talents

The foolish servant said, "Master, I knew you are a hard man, and harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground." That was an assumption that his master wanted the seed to be buried. It was also partially due to the servant's laziness. But the point is, sometimes we always do things on assumption that God wants us to do this, or "oh God called me to this" etc. I make that mistake alot of times, mostly just swayed based on what I want to do, not what God wants me to do. Ascertaining His will is sometimes a long process, and the result of spending time with Him. I realise that it takes a few times of confirmation, a lot of quiet time and just really letting God's word sink in. I also realise it takes alot of surrender of what I want and just letting Him do what He wants. Sometimes we get so clouded with what we want to do that we just equate everything to doing "God's will". It is not easy I've found, and many atime I've got it wrong. Looking back, I never pressed in hard enough into God's word to truly be certain that that was His will, and not a selfish ambition of mine. Do I actually know God's heart? Did I know it at that time? Looking back, my answer would be a no. 

• How well we know our master depicts how close our relationship is with him

Think this is pretty self explantory - if we don't walk closely with God, we will never be able to discern His will. After work started, I found it increasingly hard to find time for God. It's true how if we don't allocate time for Him, we will never have time for Him. In this passage, the servant never once asked his master what should he do with the talent, but did what he did because he thought that was what the master wanted him to do. If we don't spend time to grow out relationship with Jesus, it is so easy to think He wants us to do so and so, which might not be the case. 

Wise stewardship is anchored upon A Right View of God Our Master. 

• Not realising our talents (even if it is small in our eyes) causes us to waste it away

I mentioned how I used to think I never had any talents? I think when we overlook and not realise what God has given us, but spend our time comparing about what we don't have, we ultimately waste our talents away. It could be a job that God has given, but because we keep comparing with our friends who have better jobs, we don't see the purpose we have in the current job and thus waste our talents away. What I learnt was that sometimes when we don't see it, we need to ask God, what have you given me? what am I supposed to do now? what is the purpose you have for me now? And I'm 100% sure He will reveal it to you. Only then will we not waste the talents and bury it away like the foolish servant.

• Wasting of our talents is not walking in God's will, it is ultimately not knowing His will for your life

This is just the next part of the story. If we don't walk in God's will, it is to put it bluntly, wasting our life here on earth, yet not even storing up our heavenly treasures. To a certain extent, it is also disobedience in my opinion. Knowing and walking in God's will is the purpose of life here on earth, and if we don't do just that, then simply put we are not walking in God's will for our lives which to me is disobedience. 

IDMC 2016: Marketplace Discipleship

So I went for my first ever full IDMC this year - means I took leave for it. God given opportunity definitely, and a for a super apt season of my life (internship).
Internship definitely opened my eyes to the working world, and the struggle of juggling ministry work and life is real. Not even kidding about that. There were days where I'd just be too shag to answer my mom's question of "how's your day?", or days where I reach home after cell and just crash, or days when there is sunbeam duty and getting out of bed is such a chore. Sunday after sunday was just a nap in the afternoon after church, knowing I'd need it for the week ahead. IDMC was def an open door, that was just right for the season I'm in now.

Truth be told I was SO SLEEPY yesterday and had to survive on snacks after snacks (yay for robinsons expo sale when we all stocked up on snacks HAHA). But what really struck me the most were today's messages and the workshop. Arrived super late on thursday night and was so annoyed that I had to miss worship, even more annoyed when I found out that I couldn't get to go for Ps Barney's workshop. But before registering I did have a hunch that I wouldn't be able to get the workshops cos I was late and these were done like 2 weeks before? So otw there I prayed and just went like okay God whichever workshop you want me to be in, I'll go. Got randomly assigned to workshop 3 and 2, and those that went for 2 didn't feel that impacted. To make things worse, I had to go alone for it. Though I was okay with it la because I was quite tired and didn't mind having some solitude. Almost wanted to take Delise's workshop (Ps barney's one) cos she wanted to go for 3 which was in the hall and didn't need a card to enter as the hall was big enough. When I called her, she didn't answer but when she returned my call, I had alr settled into workshop 2. haha definitely God planned cos the workshop spoke to me so much!

So these are the main points of the workshop, after which I'll put some pointers that spoke to me from the plenaries.

3 Common Challenges:

• To love & bear with difficult people who oppose me

This one is particularly difficult for me. To bear is still okay, but to love?! That takes it a step further, but I do hope that the least I could do is to pray for them. When things get hard and people are hard to love, I'll just give it to God.

• To endure with people who are incompetent

This one really tested my patience. haha in the midst of planning for events, definitely will meet with people who just don't give their best. But Ps Ed said yesterday, you have to look in the mirror first. If you think your boss is difficult, or if you think you have unmanageable subordinates, have you ever considered you are that difficult boss or that unmanageable employee? wah this one struck me the most. Eveytime we are quick to judge, we too have to remember that we are hu,am just like them and we too are imperfect. But where we are also meant that we were given chances by people who endured our incomptence, an groomed us to be who we are today. Particularly for me. Basically, we have to be less self entitled, get rid of the ego. 

• To let go of disappointments

Disappointments are always part and parcel of life. I think there will always be days when you expect but don't receive. Or you get the shorter end of the stick for no reason. I guess it pushed me to remind myself that nothing I own is ever mine, Everything is God's, every move or disappointment also didn't come as a surprise to God. He knew everything that was gonna happen. But what I picked up today was that when we do things, we don't focus on the outcome, we focus on Jesus who called us to finish the race. When we place our hope in Jesus, then disappointments will not happen because Jesus never disappointments. Whether the outcome is good or bad, in Jesus' eyes, there wasn't a mistake because it grew and moulded you as part of His plan to make us more Christ-like. One of the speakers said this, In times of failure, trust God's hand, surrender your disappointments and hurts with God as it is preparing your spiritual muscles. 

One term that was brought in was KPI - Kingdom Priority Indicators

The speakers mentioned how important it is to submit to bosses, whether you like them or not. A new change in perspective was, if we can't even submit and show respect to earthly authority that was God given, how can we submit to God? The speaker mentioned how he always felt like he was just helping his boss reach his KPI, but he changed his perspective and realised that it pleases God when he has a right relationship with his boss which will in turn create a good relationship. If we learn to submit to our bosses, we can live to please and submit to God. Now you might think what if my boss is freaking difficult to deal with? The answer to that would be that everything is already ordained by Jesus. Every person in your life has already been planned out by God. There was never a mistake. Difficult people are there for a reason to mould us and change us to be better people. It struck me that perhaps we find that person difficult because we haven't reached that standard of the person. I mean I'm not talking about unreasonable standards, but sometimes we complain and whine so much about things that could be there to push us to be better, to be a competent worker. And if God doesn't make a mistake with whoever He wants us to meet, surely every single difficult person is there to push us to be a more effective worker. If not to push us for excellence, then perhaps they could be there to train an aspect of our personality that God wants us to improve on. Patience and anger management for example. Nothing is ever a mistake. Looking back, I can only be thankful for everyone God has placed in my life, that pushed me to be better. The process was painful, really painful sometimes, with tears involved. Ultimately as you begin grinding and polishing away the rough edges, you get a shinier and hardier rock - it was only there to make us more and more Christ-like. I also believe that earthly authority is God-ordained and for that, no matter how difficult it gets, submission to earthly authority pleases God because it is also a great testimony for fellow unbelievers in the workplace. (Responding in love to show Christ's love to others)

When it gets tough, trust and go back to God's word, because in every difficult and shitty situation at work, God has seen it all, and He knew the solution before the problem already came up. If you were walking in obedience of course. And face it, we all gonna have conflicts, even within the team. Because I'm sure everyone knows by now that an effective team comes from a diverse group of people. 

• Get ready for heaven through humility and holiness
• God placed you in a specific place where ONLY YOU can do what God has called you to do. '

3 unchanging truths:

• There's a greater world to live for
• There is inner world to conquer - within yourself
• There is a lost world to save

IDMC also woke me up to not be selfish with my money. UGH intern life is so shag sometimes, no paid leave etc etc. It's really something I struggle with but Ps Ed said God looks at the money in relation to your heart. If you are selfish with that $100, it is not worth more than someone who cheerfully and willingly gave that $1 which was all she had with her. Reminder to stop shopping so much also because money is hard to earn and it could be used for other better causes like missions. Being selfish with money is not honouring God at all, because if you think about it, everything is a gift from God in the first place.

It also reminded me how God looks at the journey while the world looks at the outcome. The world will judge based on how well something turned out, but in God's eyes, the journey is more important because the journey is where I grew. The journey is the place where it built my faith, and moulded me. Outcomes are just superficial analyses of the journey that you have been on. And well, the world is superficial, sadly.

He ended the last session with this verse that so happened to be devotion tonight:

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes from faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. - Philippians 3:7-9

okay too shag from the past days, this is probably just a gist but yes incredibly blessed for sure. The application part is the challenge now HAHA.