When hovering over a box of fine chocolates, the only thought is the delight of the moment, the finished creation as it affects ‘me’. However, a box of fine chocolates does not just appear all yummy and ready to be enjoyed.
The cocoa bean is huge and lumpy and almost impossible to crack open. Once the shell is open, there’s no chocolate, as we know it, inside. The beans inside are hard, bitter and difficult to dig out. The yummy chocolates that look so perfect are a result of an intricate process.
Christian’s are like cacao beans. We all start out ‘lumpy and raw’. Like the box of delicious chocolates, the Christians that we see as being successful have been through the ‘process’.
The learned saint who speaks with such passion and knowledge was once fumbling through their Bible to find the book of Amos. Not even the Rev. Billy Graham sprang into ministry learned, experienced and accomplished!
Not one single person that seems, sounds or looks ‘successful’ started out there. Satan loves to hold a magnifying glass up to these saints. He also loves to whisper in my ear about how inept, useless and failing my efforts are compared to ‘them’! But, I must remember; even the most eloquent scholar was once a mumbling student.
To start with, God gives each of us talents of our own according to the work He has called us to do (Matthew 25:15). Neither you nor I will ever be held up to another saint and compared to them. The most accomplished saint will be judged on the work they were given to do just as you and I will be judged on the work WE were given to do.
God will never compare my works to the works of others. What I accomplish will only be measured by the talent and directions I was, myself, given. In the parable of the talents, the master did not measure the servant with the least return by the servant with the most return. The master held each servant responsible for what they did with the talents they were, themselves, given (Matthew 25:19-23)
The only servant that was severely reprimanded was the one who did nothing at all with their talents (Matthew 25:24-26). When satan convinces me to not do anything because I can’t do it right—-or I can’t do it as well as somebody else; the work that I was intended to do doesn’t get done at all. And for THAT, I will be held accountable.
Mathew 25:28-30 “‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’