Darlene Rose

One day I was lamenting that I had nothing to offer anyone. I had so many friends and acquaintances with breathtaking talent and I was comparing my own with theirs and found I didn’t come close.

Then the Lord seemed to hover real close and softly whisper “DArlene…. I’ve given you 1000 talents”

At first that sounds like an absolutely amazing word to put into my “portfolio” but guess what? It was a gentle, loving, kind but stern rebuke!

“How so?” You ask.

Well, at the time (2016), I understood this to be from the parable of the talents. Although 10 talents were given to 1 man, 5 to another and 1 to another, yet I heard Him say 1000 , I knew it referred to the 1 talent in scripture.

If He spoke to me saying “I have given you 1 talent” I may have taken that to mean “you had one job!” The lesson here refers to what you do with it, not how much you’ve been given.

The man who was given ten talents (skills, money) invested these talents and brought his master a return. Investment is risky but he knew he was accountable for what he was given, to increase it.

The same with the one who was given 5 talents.

But the man who received one talent kept it safe and secure by burying it and preserving it so he could present it as “at least it wasn’t lost!”

“I kept it safe for you Master”

But that’s not what God desires. He is not interested in safe because He has no need of it. He is interested in our growth and interested in our hearts. He’s not interested in us keeping it safe. Safe in our hearts. Safe in our journals. Safe in a word.docx.

I looked in my computer and I have thousands of writings. Many many poems. Some pretty good but in my estimation mostly childish. He isn’t telling me to take every one of them out and offer them to others but He is telling me that I have a talent of writing and I looked at them and thought they were not good so I kept them safe in a word.doc or notebook.

Then I became stuck and couldn’t move on. Why?

Look at the Creation of the World. Before God moves into the next thing, He called the current thing good. He spoke it and it came to be, He called it good and was not stuck there. So whatever He gives us, are we content that He gave it and we do nothing with it? If He provides you food, are you content to just bring it home from the grocery store or do you cook it? Do you cook it with care? Do you cook it with love? Do you cook for yourself or for many? The point is not that you have $50 for groceries or $500 for groceries. The point is, you cooked it. If you brought it home and it sat in the refrigerator and spoiled, that is equivalent to taking the talent He gave and hiding it under a bushel. Nobody remembered it was there. It wasn’t used. It wasn’t offered. You were provided for but nothing was done.

The Widow’s Mite

Matthew 12:41 And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent.

Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury;

for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

The Widow’s Oil

1 Kings 17:10 So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”

11 As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”

12 But she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.”

13 Then Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.

The Widow’s Blessing

1 Kings 17: 14 “For thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of the earth.’”

15 So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.

16 The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.

Has the Lord given you “only” two cents? Or one talent? Or 1000 talents or skills?

Then do you have “only” two cents worth of

A song?

A smile?

Encouragement?

A word?

A sketch?

A poem?

A voice?

Forgiveness?

A shuffle in your step?

Hope?

Faith?

Love?

Kindness?

Patience?

Mercy?

Compassion?

A bottle of oil?

A heart for the poor?

Look what the Lord did with a little boy’s lunch one day!

He is saying right now “Look at what you were given! Don’t look at what it can no longer buy with today’s prices! Don’t look at how far you can no longer go with gas prices! Stop comparing your talents with another’s and saying “it isn’t good!” You are judging it incorrectly. Your eyes are not on Kingdom economy. You may need help so ask for it.

But don’t say “whoa is me, I have nothing to offer, I have nothing that anyone else wants”.

This is called unbelief. This is actually the beginning of wickedness. (Look it up in Matthew 25)

Simple message.

But timely.

That’s my two cents worth for today. It’s what I have.