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Affections and Impulses Are Precious Talents, April 25
Improving My Talents
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in
honour preferring one another.
Romans 12:10
Kindly affections, generous impulses, and a quick apprehension
of spiritual things are precious talents and lay their possessor under a
weighty responsibility. All are to be used in God’s service. But here
many err. Satisfied with the possession of these qualities, they fail to
bring them into active service for others.... Those who possess large
affections are under obligation to God to bestow them, not merely on
their friends, but on all who need their help. Social advantages are talents,
and are to be used for the benefit of all within reach of our influence....
Talents used are talents multiplied. Success is not the result of chance
or of destiny; it is the outworking of God’s own providence, the reward
of faith and discretion, of virtue and persevering effort. The Lord desires
us to use every gift we have; and if we do this, we shall have greater
gifts to use. He does not supernaturally endow us with the qualifications
we lack; but while we use that which we have, He will work with us to
increase and strengthen every faculty. By every wholehearted, earnest
sacrifice for the Master’s service, our powers will increase.... As we
cherish and obey the promptings of the Spirit, our hearts are enlarged
to receive more and more of His power and to do more and better work.
Dormant energies are aroused and palsied faculties receive new life....
As we seek to win others to Christ, bearing the burdens of souls in
our prayers, our own hearts will throb with the quickening influence
of God’s grace; our own affections will glow with more divine fervor;
our whole Christian life will be more of a reality, more earnest, more
prayerful.
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