Have You Thanked God Today for What He Has Provided?

So much of what is referred to as being successful highlights a celebrated period of productivity. This juncture in life is analogous to the farmer whose crop produced such an abundant harvest, new barns had to be built to store it.

What do you do with ideas that have future potentiality? In this parable from Luke 12:16, unexpected success appears to have created a mindset of freedom from responsibility backed by a lifetime of future celebrations. The man somehow forgot that life expectancy is unpredictable.

This recipient of God’s blessing neglected to offer thanksgiving to God for his abundant provision. God implants ideas in your mind for your benefit and for his kingdom here on earth. How these ideas are nurtured and cultivated determine God’s blessings.

Being a good manager of what is entrusted into your care demonstrates personal accountability.

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Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he [Jesus] who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 

~Hebrews 10:23-24 New International Version 

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What Does It Take to Prevent Wasting Your Life?

I recently visited with a friend who worked for years without taking a vacation because providing for his family seemed more important than taking time off for leisure and recreation. Now that he’s older he regrets having missed what can never be regained.

He failed to realize that having fun and making great memories with his family were also important. It doesn’t take a vast creative mind to develop a particular way of thinking and remain there indefinitely.

Jesus told the Parable of the Sower to convey the idea that in life there will be opportunities to use your intelligence and innate skills for choosing wisely. So much of life can be wasted on things that have no lasting value, like seeds planted in soil that has no depth or where plants are overtaken by thorns that suffocate and strangle them. A life anchored in Jesus Christ has eternal security and life in abundance.

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Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 

~Psalm 37:4 New International Version 

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Is There a Compelling Motive for Suppressing Atypical Ideas?

Someone noted that if each person would take a moment to give consideration to an atypical idea that spontaneously became conscious, it was possible that good, wonderful results could be the prize.

It is important to analyze thought patterns to determine if they are good or evil, so a commitment to “do no harm” should constantly dominate. Abraham Lincoln wrote, “Our best judgment is constantly demanded to separate good from evil.” 

The next step in bringing your creative insight to fruition is to nurture it like a seed planted in good soil and properly watered. An idea Abraham Lincoln pondered for years was the Emancipation Proclamation Act, but getting it through Congress with war raging took creativity, courage, and faith. Your ideas blessed by God could be analogous to Jesus’ “Parable of the Mustard Seed”. Although just a thought, if loaded with potentiality, God alone knows the future.

           

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For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. 

~Ecclesiastes 12:14 New International Version 

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What Is the Mandate God Assigns to Each Believer?

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung believed some people were able to know things not naturally learned. These people may realize they possess insight designed to benefit God’s plan and purpose for them as well as for others.

What greater motive for creativity and accountability could there be, realizing you are privileged to be doing what honors and pleases the Lord God? Jesus referred to this as laying up incorruptible treasures in heaven.

Jesus gave us a related truth in the “Parable of the Mustard Seed”. The wonder and power in a tiny mustard seed is similar to the power of faith and trust God assigns to believers in Christ Jesus. Jesus confirms in John 16:13 he would send the Holy Spirit to guide believers into all truth he had taught. 

That mandate is to learn whatever is within the scope of your ability to assimilate and then be accountable to God for that information.    

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Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove to be faithful. 

~1 Corinthians 4:2 New International Version

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How Much Power Is Stored in the Smallest Particle of Faith?

The first sentence of Genesis 1 tells us that God created the heavens and earth. The word created means to bring into existence what did not previously exist, and this perspective is attributed only to God.

Did God intend for human beings to be co-creators with him, filling the earth with new innovations and designs? For centuries humans have been innovators and inventors by using their intelligence and intuition to pursue ideas for the betterment of self and others.

Jesus’ Parable of the Mustard Seed reminds believers that faith and trust, no matter how small, are capable of producing enormous results when blessed by God.

Quality not quantity is the issue. So faith, like the tiny mustard seed, is the force behind creativity and accountability. So you, like the smallest particle of God’s creation, can respond to his design and purpose.                   

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Each of you should use whatever gifts your have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 

~1 Peter 4:10 New International Version

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Can You Know Your Destiny for Certain?

Have you ever reflected on what you could have done in life if only circumstances had been different? Getting bogged down in the old “if-only entrapment” that served as justification for your underachievement, you could have pursued a different pathway to contentment.

When I was attending college, I met a man in his late twenties who confessed he could not read and was unable to complete an application for employment he was pursuing. He was intelligent, as confirmed by his vocabulary and ability to communicate.

This person demonstrated accountability and creativity by enrolling in programs designed to help those with dyslexia learn to read and write by unconventional methods. In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, disease and poverty could not dissuade Lazarus from his faith in God’s care as he battled to survive each day. While some situations cannot be overcome, faith provides the will to endure. 

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 For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 

~Philippians 2:13 New International Version 

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 

~John 15:5 New International Version

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Does God Hold You Responsible for Your Skills and Talents?

Creativity is not just coming up with ideas but doing what it takes to be sure an idea is worthy of bringing to fruition. Creativity recognizes that while pursuing an idea, something totally different could be discovered that is more worthwhile than the original goal.

You do not have to be a scientist to be creative. Parenting demands creativity, for it’s a continuous learning process. Parents are accountable to God and the entire social order for teaching and enforcing boundaries so children know what’s acceptable.   

Creativity leads to opportunity and responsibility.

God hold us accountable, as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus demonstrates. Lazarus suffered from a disease that prevented him from working, yet each day he subjected himself to the generosity of others. Present and future rewards are in store for those whose faith and trust in God reflect their determination to be accountable.

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And let us consider how we can spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 

~Hebrews 10:24 New International Version 

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