The Blog

What advantage is there in being talented? Is it a benefit or hindrance to life in God’s kingdom? It is natural to think that positive qualities such as intelligence, ambition, ingenuity, etc. are helpful for living our Christian lives. But the truth is that even good things are easily distorted and used for harm. Our self-reliant nature twists even good gifts into destructive forces in our lives and even in the lives of others.

Let us look at Solomon, the ruler of Israel. My goal is not to judge Solomon by any way but I want us to see in him what we need to see in ourselves. Solomon was a man of great astuteness who brought light to the nation but at the same time he exhibited a blindness. If you read 1 Chronicles chapter 22, you will see that God named him and granted him the privilege of building the temple. God also gave him the greatest of all things, Wisdom! With all these gifts, what happened to this man?

We see the untamed passions of a gifted man.

We can be immensely gifted in certain areas but if we don’t learn to submit our tantalizing thoughts to the will of the Holy Spirit, we are bound to struggle in our life. As I speak for most people, the greatest struggle in our life is our passions. We live in a world that continuously weakens our spiritual resistance. No matter how much wisdom we have and know how to differentiate between right and wrong; no matter how many privileges God gives us… we have to wrestle with our passions. And if our passions are untamed, our gifts are going to be misused, abused and ultimately devastated. Our passions need to be tamed. We have to do it moment by moment because no matter how Godly we want to be, these temptations are real and continually haunt us, looking for a weak spots.

In conclusion, our passions and our gifts, even if they are good, will be distorted if they are not brought under the Holy Spirit’s control. Wisdom can become self-sufficiency, charity can become self-righteousness, and pleasure can become addiction. These gifts, once twisted will ultimately cause damage to you and those around you. It is only by constantly abiding in Christ our natural desires and gifts can be used for their ultimate purpose – to bless others and to advance God’s kingdom on earth.