Gifts and Talents

           There was a young man that had a dream of playing football. At the age of 9 he drew a picture of himself, and wrote under it ‘the best safety in the NFL.’ The problem was, he was very small. In high school he was only 5 feet tall and weighed only 100 pounds. The coaches were concerned about his safety. They kept telling him he was too small and would get hurt. He went back again and again, he wanted to play so badly. One day the coach said we have weighed you, looked at you, but you are just too small. That night he told his father what the coach said about how they measured him and weighed him and turned him down. His father looked in his eyes and said “did they measure your heart”. He was saying, they did not look at what is inside of you. After several years he finally played for the Houston Oilers for four seasons. The second year with the Oilers, Bo Eason was voted the ‘Best Safety in the NFL’.

      A safety is a defensive back who typically is positioned deeper than any other position on the defense and serve as the last line of defense against a big play. It is a safety's job to help protect his team against pass threats when playing in coverage situations, but a safety can also be a prominent part of the team's running defense.

      We are sometimes like those coaches. When someone complements us, or say we did a good job, we say “oh no not me, I am not worthy.” We put ourselves down. Even we don’t have any idea of what is inside of us. We are not good Receivers.

      When we have a little sniffle, our first though to do, is to get an appointment with our Doctor. Our first thought should be, is to ask God for His help. God said “we have not, because we ask not.” There is nothing wrong with Doctors. God can, and does, work through the Doctors’ skills. But our thoughts should be on our Creator; The One whom that has formed us, and created us. He knows more about us than any Doctor.

       I am getting a little older now, and one day I was walking into church and had a dizzy spell and almost fell. I immediately asked God to give me back my balance. He did and I have not had a dizzy spell since. Getting older is not a lot of fun. I was having trouble with my memory. I asked God to give me back my memory: I wanted Total Recall. I have not had a problem with my memory since.

      We can ask God for any thing, but we need to be careful of the things we ask for. God said “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures”. We can ask God for His blessings. We can ask for healing. We can ask for other people to be blessed or healed. We can ask for the Nations, and God will give then to us. We can ask for any thing that further’s the Kingdom of God.

      We should be good receivers of the things of God. We ask, He replies, we receive and thank Him for his goodness. The most important thing is to have a thankful heart. We thank Him for giving us life. We thank Him for His work in us. We thank Him for His goodness to us. We are thankful in everything we do.

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      New King James Version
Matthew 21:22 "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

      New King James Version
Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
9 "Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10 "Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

      New King James Version
Matthew 18:18 "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
20 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."

      New King James Version
James 4:1 ¶ Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.