Sometimes I think my talent won’t last. I’ll rise up early, get to the keyboard and my fingers won’t stroke a key. I have nothing to say. My talent has left me, gone on to younger fingers and fresh minds, leaving me in a funnel. I’m history, a part of the “you remember that” crew, that group of people who for a season dazzled us with whatever God-giving amazement they had then vanished. I don’t want people to think about me with has-been terms. “Whatever happened to…?,” “She used to,” and “I used to like” are memory-keeping phrases that I don’t want anyone to have relating to me and my writing. All of these thoughts came to me before I heard: “God is everlasting so my talent is everlasting.” That thought didn’t come from me so I went to the keyboard to relate what my Everlasting Talent was saying.

We put too much emphasis on what we can do, what others will think, how well we can do, and if we can do it again, and it was never us in the first place. If we are connected to the Everlasting One—Jesus Christ Himself—whatever He has for us will last as long as it should; it will be everlasting. This is what we need to focus on. No amount of worry about our ability or what others think will produce what God has given to us to produce. “[I]n him we live and move and have our being…” (Acts 17:28). Whatever lasts remains because God has allowed it to remain. Yes, we must do our part by way of discipline and the route of preparation He has for us, but “…God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn” (Romans 11:29 NLT). Whatever ability and assignment God gives us will always be there. My talent focus might shift but it will still be there, everflowing and giving life to others through God’s enabling. That’s the only way we accomplish anything. We must remember to live “by revelation not by human determination” (Tony Evans in his series “Reclaiming Your Spiritual Authority: The Key to Ruling the World, Part 1).

I am thankful that I produce through God’s revelation not my determination, worry or any other human factor. God provides me a well of thoughts and those are the only ones I should want anyway.

What “inadequacy” have you been wrestling with?

Copyright 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

My One Thousand Gifts List

#91-100
Not feeling engorged
Justus sleeping seven hours through the night
Being able to witness to a woman
The woman being receptive to being evangelized
Cooking dinner without feeling stressed
Christen for babysitting
Dinner out with Flynn
Tasty food at Benihana
A loving mother with her four children at Benihana
A loving couple at Benihana