Every day and many times throughout each day we are presented with choices that determine outcomes for us and others. I am thankful for MBCH staff that help parents and children make better choices and seize upon better opportunities. For some families, they did not know or understand they had a better life set before them through a pattern of different decisions.
Jesus gives us a parable about opportunities in Matthew 25. God has blessed all of us differently. God, according to the parable, gives as He determines, for the work of His Kingdom. The amount is not as important as the action. The talents are blessings from God; they are opportunities to be used by us for God. God will evaluate our opportunities taken and the opportunities missed. God praises the two who used the talents and blessed them with more. However, the one who was fearful and hid the talent lost what he had. Every blessing we have from our heavenly Father is a talent, an opportunity to be used for His glory and for His Kingdom. Our heavenly Father is and will judge our actions based on what we have and how we use it.
I am amazed by the failure of the third person given a talent. He knew the owner could produce without effort of sowing the seed. This person was fearful of God, hesitant to step out and use his talent. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that “God loves a cheerful giver.” God wants us to enjoy our Kingdom life throughout all eternity, but that span of time started the day we became a Kingdom citizen. We should be enjoying the blessings of God and use His gifts cheerfully in our Kingdom walk today.
There is an opportunity that the state of Missouri gives us. We know God controls the powers that be. The state would like to help young moms with their babies. They want to encourage agencies like MBCH to continue helping the baby from conception. The state does this by offering a 70% tax credit. You can turn your tax burden into a blessing by making a simple decision with the money God has blessed you with. By making a choice of donating to MBCH and our pregnancy services, you can receive 70% of that gift as a credit towards your state taxes.
I hear people say, “I do not want to do it for the tax credit.” Great! We love cheerful givers for God. But, consider this, if you give $1000 cheerfully and take the tax credit, you will receive $700 as a credit back on your state taxes. Then you could cheerfully put the $700 next year with your gift of $1000 and give $1700, with no larger out of pocket expense. That’s using God’s talents wisely and multiplying what God has entrusted you with. I believe that would be a “well done thou good and faithful servant” moment.