Do not be afraid to work; do not be afraid to sacrifice your time to the Lord!

Greetings to you, dear readers! Our Lord is good and merciful!

“Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds” (Psalm, 36:5).

He loved His Church and every one of us with eternal love!God desires to see His Church as the group of people that is prepared and knows what to do. God wants His children to learn and grow not only spiritually, but also intellectually, creatively; He wants us to not waste any time. His desire is that we would use all the opportunities He is sending our way.Do not be afraid to work; do not be afraid to sacrifice your time to the Lord! Real work requires some sweating, so to speak.Once again let’s look at the parable of talents that Jesus told. We saw the first two servants who got to work right away, not wasting any time and using everything they had been given by their master.Now let’s look at the third servant and what he was thinking.

«But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money» (Mathew, 25:18).

This person received some money from his master and he hid it. Please, notice these words ‘money from his master’. He knew that what he had received did not belong to him; it belonged to his master. And he made a conscious decision to hide the treasure his master had given him.He did two things that we should avoid: he dug his talent in the ground and hid it.In order to dig it in the ground, he had to make an effort.The first two servants worked to create and make some profit for their master. The third one also worked; it could have been quite hard for him, but his work did not bring any fruit.Many of us spend a lot of energy when running away from our calling. Sometimes people work hard to come up with different excuses why they are not entering their calling that is so obvious to them. Whether a person answers the call of God or runs away from it, it takes some effort.We can not spend our life running away from God’s calling.The third servant hid his master’s treasure. Possibly, he got offended by the fact that he was given less than the other two. This servant was ashamed of what he had and hid it.Today I see so many people acting this way in the house of God. Many consider their talents too insignificant, because they cannot measure up to some ‘big shots’. Many are ashamed of their talents, because they consider them to be very small. God gives someone a prophetic word, but he never proclaims it to the church because he or she thinks that someone else – like a pastor or a leader – can do a much better job.We can not feel ashamed of the talents given to us by the Lord. We should not hide them from the people. We should make use of them and multiply them.Remember that all great things begin with ‘a seed’, something seemingly insignificant. A tiny seed is the beginning for a huge garden. Do not hide what the Lord has given you. Use it! Do business with it!May God give every one of us wisdom and power to serve and use our talents!Till tomorrow!Pastor Rufus Ajiboye