Heart | JOURNEY OF THANKFULNESS

Day 6 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Gifts and Talents.

Had an interesting conversation with my dad recently. He said God gives gifts and talents, and that those are two very different things. Gifts are spiritual and for the advancement of the church and the strengthening of the body of Christ. Examples include pastors, teachers, and prophets. Talents are physical human abilities that God grants you, such as being good at science, math, writing, or photography.

I’m on a journey of using the talents God has given me with my photography (site coming soon) and this blog (Journey of Thankfulness). What I’m learning is that God will bless the gifts and talents He’s given us when we are willing to use them for His glory. My mother always told me that I have the spiritual gift of discernment, and I can genuinely say that that gift has saved me and others on more than one occasion. Photography allows me to see the beauty in everything God has made, while writing allows me to express what He’s showing me and to share it with others. Here’s a truth: the enemy of our souls does not want us to use our gifts or our talents. He wants us to feel useless, as if we don’t have a purpose or a reason to exist. Here’s another truth: we are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

So, friend, if you’ve put your gifts under the bed or your talents on the shelf, pick them up and dust them off. God’s not done with them or you yet. He has a purpose for giving them to you. So don’t be afraid to use them.

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).

So what am I thankful for today? God-given gifts and talents.

Day 363 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…God Taking My Heart of Stone

Yesterday at church, I read a verse that I am sure I have read many times before, but it felt like the first time I had truly seen it. The verse is from Mark 6:52. However, before I write the verse, let me give some backstory: Jesus had just finished feeding over 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. He then told his disciples to get in the boat and go ahead of him, while he spent some time in prayer. As the disciples continue their journey, a storm begins, and they struggle to keep control of the boat. Jesus sees this and comes to meet them by walking on the water. But upon seeing this, the disciples are afraid, mistaking Jesus for a ghost. We will pick up in verse 50b as we make our way to verse 52. “Immediately, He spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for THEY HAD NOT UNDERSTOOD ABOUT THE LOAVES; THEIR HEARTS WERE HARDENED.”

You see it too, right? “They didn’t understand about the loaves, their hearts were hardened.” I have read the book of Mark more than once, and I have never noticed this verse before. The disciples lived with Jesus, ate with Jesus, journeyed with Jesus, and witnessed every single miracle FIRSTHAND and STILL DID NOT UNDERSTAND. It made me think about my life, about all the ways I see God move in my life and in my world daily, and how, despite all He’s done, I still struggle to trust Him with 100% of my heart. It can feel discouraging, can’t it? Like a hamster on a wheel, only the hamster knows where the food is, has all the tools needed to get off the wheel, yet speeds up its pace of going nowhere. We complain about the disciples and declare that we’d have done it differently, yet here we are doing the exact same thing in real time.

Here’s the hope, friends, Jesus didn’t leave the disciples; He continued with them because He knew that one day He would lead them to understanding, one day their eyes would see fully, and when that day came, they would change the world in His name. Here’s a promise to hold on to when you feel like your heart is hardened: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Today, I am thankful that God will take away my heart of stone.