Daily Devotional

February 12, 2019

Use Even One Talent Wisely

“I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.” But his Lord answered and said to him, “You wicked and lazy servant…. You ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.” Matthew 25:25-27, NKJV.

None should mourn that they have not larger talents. When they use to the glory of God the talents He has given them, they will improve. It is no time now to bemoan our position in life, and excuse our neglect to improve our abilities because we have not another’s ability and position, saying, Oh, if I had his or her gift and ability, I might invest a large capital for my Master. If such persons use their one talent wisely and well, that is all the Master requires of them.

Look into our churches. There are only a few real workers in them. The majority are irresponsible men and women. They feel no burden for souls. They manifest no hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They never lift when the work goes hard. These are the ones who have but one talent, and hide that one in a napkin, and bury it in the world; that is, they use all the influence they have in their temporal matters. In seeking the things of this life, they lose the future, eternal life, the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. What can be said and done to arouse this class of church members to feel their accountability to God? Must the mass of professed Christian commandment keepers hear the fearful words “Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”?

Every man and woman and child should be a worker for God. Where there is now one who feels the burden of souls there should be one hundred. What can we do to arouse the people to improve what influence and means they already have to the glory of the Master? Let those who have one talent use that well, and in so doing they will find it doubled. God will accept “according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” – The Review and Herald, March 14, 1878.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 79.

Daily Devotional

February 11, 2019

How to “Redeem” Time

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15, 16, NKJV.

The value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation in which to prepare for eternity. We have no time to waste, no time to devote to selfish pleasure, no time for the indulgence of sin. It is now that we are to form characters for the future, immortal life. It is now that we are to prepare for the searching judgment.

The human family have scarcely begun to live when they begin to die, and the world’s incessant labor ends in nothingness unless a true knowledge in regard to eternal life is gained. The people who appreciate time as their working day will fit themselves for a mansion and for a life that is immortal. It is well that they were born.

We are admonished to redeem the time. But time squandered can never be recovered. We cannot call back even one moment. The only way in which we can redeem our time is by making the most of that which remains, by being coworkers with God in His great plan of redemption. In those who do this, a transformation of character takes place. They become sons and daughters of God, members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. They are fitted to be companions of the angels.

Now is our time to labor for the salvation of others. There are some who think that if they give money to the cause of Christ, this is all they are required to do; the precious time in which they might do personal service for Him passes unimproved. But it is the privilege and duty of all who have health and strength to render to God active service. All are to labor in winning souls to Christ. Donations of money cannot take the place of this….

The opportunity that is now ours to speak to some needy soul the word of life may never offer again. God may say to that one, “This night thy soul shall be required of thee,” and through our neglect he or she may not be ready (Luke 12:20). In the great judgment day, how shall we render our account to God? – Christ’s Object Lessons, 342, 343.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 78.

Daily Devotional

February 10, 2019

Buried Talents Should Be Used

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Colossians 4:5, 6, NKJV.

Seek conversion of body, soul, and spirit. Unfold your napkin, and begin to trade with your Lord’s goods. In so doing, you will gain other talents. Every soul entrusted with talents is to use them to benefit others. Who in the great day of final reckoning will say, “I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine”? To such the Lord will say, “Thou wicked and slothful servant …: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.”

The Lord is still calling those who are apparently blind to their deficiencies, the self-complacent ones, who plan and devise how they can best serve themselves. God help the spiritually blind to see that there is a world to be saved. The truth is to be made manifest to those who know it not, and this work calls for the self-denying grace of Christ.

Thousands who are now of no use in God’s cause should be digging up their buried talents, and putting them out to the exchangers. Those who think that they will surely reach heaven while they follow their own ways and imaginations might better break the seal, and reexamine their title to the treasures of heaven. The men and women who feel at ease in Zion might better become anxious about themselves, and inquire: What am I doing in the Lord’s vineyard? Why am I not yoked up with Christ, a laborer together with God? Why am I not learning in Christ’s school His meekness and lowliness of heart? Why have I no burdens to bear in the service of Christ? Why am I not a decided Christian, employing all my powers in laboring for the salvation of the souls who are perishing around me? Saith not the Word, “We are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building”? Shall I not with God’s help build a character for time and eternity, and promote godliness in myself and in others through the sanctification of the truth? – The Review and Herald, August 21, 1900.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 77.

Daily Devotional

February 9, 2019

Every Hour Is Valuable

How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? Proverbs 6:9,NKJV. Go to the ant…. Consider her ways and be wise. Verse 6, NKJV.

God has no use for lazy men or women in His cause; He wants thoughtful, kind, affectionate, earnest workers. Active exertion will do our preachers good. Indolence is proof of depravity. Every faculty of the mind, every bone in the body, every muscle of the limbs, shows that God designed our faculties to be used, not to remain inactive…. Those who will unnecessarily take the hours of daylight for sleep have no sense of the value of precious, golden moments….

Persons who have not acquired habits of close industry and economy of time should have set rules to prompt them to regularity and dispatch. George Washington [the first United States president] was enabled to perform a great amount of business because he was thorough in preserving order and regularity. Every paper had its date and its place, and no time was lost in looking up what had been mislaid.

Men and women of God must be diligent in study, earnest in the acquirement of knowledge, never wasting an hour. Through persevering exertion they may rise to almost any degree of eminence as Christians, as people of power and influence. But many will never attain superior rank in the pulpit or in business, because of their unfixedness of purpose, and the laxness of habits contracted in their youth. Careless inattention is seen in everything they undertake. A sudden impulse now and then is not sufficient to accomplish a reformation in these ease-loving, indolent ones; this is a work which requires patient continuance in well-doing. Persons of business can be truly successful only by having regular hours for rising, for prayer, for meals, and for retiring. If order and regularity are essential in worldly business, how much more so in the work of God!

The bright morning hours are wasted by many in bed. These precious hours, once lost, are gone never to return; they are lost for time and for eternity. Only one hour lost each day, and what a waste of time in the course of a year! Let slumberers think of this, and pause to consider how they will give an account to God for lost opportunities. – Gospel Workers, 277, 278.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 76.

Daily Devotional

February 8, 2019

Regularity and Promptness Are Religious Duties

To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. Colossians 1:29, NKJV.

God has entrusted His sacred work to human beings, and He asks that they shall do it carefully…. They press too many things into their life, postpone until tomorrow that which demands their attention today, and much time is lost in painfully picking up the lost stitches. Men and women can reach a higher degree of usefulness than to carry with them through life an unsettled state of mind. They can improve the defective traits of their character contracted in their younger years. Like Paul, they can labor to reach a much higher degree of perfection.

The work of God must not be done by fits and starts. It will not be placed on vantage ground by following a sudden impulse. On the contrary, it is positively necessary to follow the good work patiently, day by day, progressing in our ways and methods. One should get up at a regular hour. If during the day the work is neglected, and the following night is spent in making up for lost time, the morrow and following day will show, as a result, a wearied brain and a general fatigue which constitute positive violations of the law of life and health.

There should be regular hours for rising, for family worship, for meals, and for work. And it is a religious duty … to maintain this by precept … by a firm example. Many squander the most precious hours of the morning hoping that they can terminate the work thus neglected during the hours which should be devoted to sleep. Godliness, health, success, everything suffers from this lack of true religious system….

Some workers need to give up the slow methods of work which prevail, and to learn to be prompt. Promptness is necessary, as well as diligence. If we wish to accomplish the work according to the will of God, it must be done in an expeditious manner, but not without thought and care. – Manuscript Releases 8:326, 327.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 75.