O: “To bring to a more advanced or more highly organised state, To work out the potentialities of, To cause to grow or advance” are some of the ways the word ‘develop’ is defined in the Chambers Dictionary.  How does this relate to the scripture you might wonder?  The talents delivered to the servants were, in essence, in their raw state and without doing anything with them, they remained dormant. In the parable of the talents, there are three main roles. The Lord of the servants, the three servants, and the goods or talents. The goods or talents in the story represent the gifts/talents God has entrusted to us (verse 14). The master is God himself and he gives the talents to the servants who represent us. They received the gifts and talents according to their ability which speaks to the capacity they had/we have to use it, in other words, to develop it. Ultimately what we see is that by the end, two of the servants had doubled what was entrusted to them and one had buried what was given to him and returned it in exactly the same condition. In essence, the two servants who doubled what they had were able to do so because they ‘put it to work’. The truth is, many of us spend time and energy not doing the small things every day that would grow us to the next level. If you want to grow you cannot escape the process of development. The process is the only way to turn your seed into fruit, your potential into reality. This requires time, consistency and tenacity. When you commit to develop you do it in faith, because at the beginning it is impossible to see the complete picture of how it is going to turn out. Be confident in the confidence God has in you and start your growth journey because you have the ability to multiply all God has given you. 

A: As you are reading today, somewhere inside you know there is a chance that the talent God has given you, whatever it is, could be greater. Identify it and commit to the process of developing it.

P: Thank you Lord for the gifts and talents you have placed in me. Gives us the wisdom, faith and patience to develop our talents