Achieving Your Purpose"
One of the key components of achieving your purpose is not to”bury” any talent that has been given to you but to use it according to your ability so it can increase.
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey." Matthew 25:14&15
"Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And 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 knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.' "
Matthew 25:24-29
In the above passages of scripture we see three servants who where given talents according to their ability. You, like these servants, also have one or many talents and your purpose in life is to use and grow your ability to cause the talent or talents to grow.
However to achieve this purpose we have to make sure we are not burying or covering the talent. Examining the reasons the servant buried his talent can give insight on how we can also bury our talents: We have a wrong mindset of what we know (‘I knew you to be a hard man”) The servant thoughts of his Lord was him being a “hard” man because he took what he did not put effort in. The other two servants did not have this view point of the Lord and therefore immediately went to work using their ability. A wrong mindset or viewpoint will cause us to take what is meant to be a blessing in our lives and bury it. Fear (“and I was afraid,”)
Whenever we have the wrong mindset or thinking pattern it opens the door for us to operate our lives from the following perspectives of fear:
Fear of Failure - No one likes to make mistakes and the opportunity for one to fail when using what has been given to us will cause us to bury our talent. We have to remember ability can grow if we step out in faith and use it. Fear of Success - This fear will cause us to be inconsistent and stop doing what we have done to produce success. We will do actions of self sabotage that stops the momentum of success because we do not feel worthy (low self image) to handle it. Fear of Criticism - This is when we put the value of what others will say over the value of what we have to gain by using the talent that has been given to us.
Fear of What’s Seen - This fear can be activated by people, circumstances or both. Either way the fear paralyzes us based on what we see or know about people or circumstances that are before us because we have made the people or circumstances bigger than our ability.
Fear of What’s Not Seen - Growth usually comes from venturing into unknown areas. This aspect of fear causes us to not move because we do not have it “figured out” beforehand.
These reasons of fear causes us to take what is supposed to fruitful for our lives (the talent) and bury it,
Overcoming Wrong Mindsets and Fear
"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" 1 John 4:8
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18
"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30 & 31
Eliminating wrong mindsets and fears consists of receiving and operating in perfect love. The first part of perfect love is knowing no matter how you might feel about yourself or even about God, He still has a love for you that is precisely what you need to accomplish your purpose. Once you embrace this love and then give it back to God by loving Him, you are now operating in perfect love. This two way love will cast out all of your fears.
According to Mark 12:30 your part of operating in perfect love is loving God in all four of these areas of our inner self: Our heart - where our emotions and true abilities reside. Soul - Where your life force is located. Mind - What we think about. Strength - The energy we put out. Operating in love towards God in ALL of these four areas will cause us to love who we are and as we realize that God's love for us is with us, we can and will succeed. This mindset causes you to use all your ability (and faith) to “dig up” your talent, increase it, and achieve your life’s purpose.
