Gifts and Talents

          There was a man who had smoked cigarettes for most of his life. He had tried to quit many times but could not. One day he felt God telling him that today was the time to quit smoking. He postponed it that day. The next day he felt God telling him it was time to quit again. He postponed it again. Each day that urge to quit grew less and less. Before long he found himself unable to quit.

      When the two spies gave a good report, and the ten spies gave a bad report, all of the people believed the ten spies report and were afraid to go into the promised land. God said that the spies were in the land for forty days and that they would stay in the desert for forty years. Then after thinking about it all of the people decided to go ahead and tried to go into the promised land, but the Lord was not with them.

      Israel lost the opportunity to go into the promised land because of their complaining. God sometimes offers us the opportunity to give up bad habit or to take a step up in faith and do something new. If we procrastinate or decide to wait a while, ‘put it on the back burner’, God will back off and let us go our own way. We know inside our heart that God is the one offering us an opportunity and we need to accept His offer without delay. We sometimes look at the past at how God worked in our lives before and expect that God will do it the same way He did before. God works in many ways that we don’t understand. We need to listen to our inner voice to what God is saying to us. God offers us many things, a new or different ministry, or the right person to marry, a new job, and many other things. God works in the Today and not the past and He will not always wait for us. We must be ready to accept what God is offering us.

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      New King James Version
Numbers 13:30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it."
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we."

      New King James Version
Numbers 14:2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
3 "Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"

      New King James Version
Numbers 14:22 "because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,
23 "they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.

      New King James Version
Numbers 14:39 Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised, for we have sinned!"
41 And Moses said, "Now why do you transgress the command of the LORD? For this will not succeed.
42 "Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the LORD is not among you.

       New King James Version
Genesis 6:3 ¶ And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; ……..”