Faithfulness

When I was a kid, I loved playing with Play-Doh and Crayons. I loved the smell (I know, I’m a weirdo), I loved the consistency, I loved the colors. Play-Doh and Crayons were my favorite things to play with. Why? Because I could dream and create with them. My imagination could run wild dreaming and building and coloring. My family repainted walls so many times because I would color all over them. But I was just a kid dreaming, trying to put my imagination into real life any way that I could.

I think God invites me to be like this in my adult life too, except it just looks a little different now. He invites me to dream with Him, to color the world with Him. He invites me to create with what He’s so freely given to me. He invites me into faithfulness. But what does that mean?

What does it mean to be faithful with what He’s given us?
I think the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 illustrates faithfulness so well.

"For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away”' - Matthew 25:14-15 ESV

In order to be faithful with something, you have to receive it first. The servants couldn’t be faithful with the talents until they received them, right? Each servant received according to his ability, specifically his ability to be faithful.

I think the first part of being faithful to the Lord is to receive and to trust that He won’t give outside of our ability. Will He stretch us? Sure. How would we grow if He didn’t? But will He take care of us in the process—absolutely. We just have to freely receive.

Once we have received, I think we have the opportunity to dream with what we’ve been given.
Once the master returns from his journey he goes to see his servants. We learn that the servants who received 5 talents and 2 talents doubled their portion. We hear the master say,

“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” - Matthew 25:21 ESV

They saw the possibilities for what they had been given and received more than they thought was possible—the joy of their master. Why? Because they dreamt with their portion. There is always more when it comes to God and what He gives us. I think we are called to maintain what we have, but also ask for the more that exists. That’s what 2 of the servants did in this parable.

However, the third servant missed the point. He buried what little he had been given because he was afraid of the master. When the master sees this, he is upset.

'But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I
have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money
with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.'" - Matthew 25:26-27 ESV

Fear held the servant back from the faithfulness the master called him to. Specifically, the
servant was afraid of the master’s character and what would happen if he lost what he’d been
given. Fear kept the servant from dreaming with his portion, and ultimately, he missed the point
entirely. His one talent was taken from him and given to the servant who had 10 talents,
originally 5 talents. Why? Because the first (and second) servants exhibited hearts of
faithfulness.

“For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one
who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” - Matthew 25:29 ESV

The ones who are faithful will have abundance. That’s just the way of the kingdom. We receive
what God wants to freely give, but also dream for the more He has to offer. Like Play-Doh and
Crayons, we get to dream, build, and create with Him. We get to color the world with Him.

Author | Elizabeth Sprinkle