Affections and Impulses Are Precious Talents

[Thompson, Darryl]

Affections and Impulses Are Precious Talents 

     Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour
preferring one another. Rom. 12:10  

     Kindly affections, generous impulses, and a quick apprehension of
spiritual things are precious talents and lay their possessor under a
weighty responsibility. All are to be used in God's service. But here
many err. Satisfied with the possession of these qualities, they fail to
bring them into active service for others. . . . Those who possess large
affections are under obligation to God to bestow them, not merely on
their friends, but on all who need their help. Social advantages are
talents, and are to be used for the benefit of all within reach of our
influence. . . .  

     Talents used are talents multiplied. Success is not the result of
chance or of destiny; it is the outworking of God's own providence, the
reward of faith and discretion, of virtue and persevering effort. The
Lord desires us to use every gift we have; and if we do this, we shall
have greater gifts to use. He does not supernaturally endow us with the
qualifications we lack; but while we use that which we have, He will
work with us to increase and strengthen every faculty. By every
wholehearted, earnest sacrifice for the Master's service, our powers
will increase. . . . As we cherish and obey the promptings of the
Spirit, our hearts are enlarged to receive more and more of His power
and to do more and better work. Dormant energies are aroused and palsied
faculties receive new life. . . .  

     As we seek to win others to Christ, bearing the burdens of souls in
our prayers, our own hearts will throb with the quickening influence of
God's grace; our own affections will glow with more divine fervor; our
whole Christian life will be more of a reality, more earnest, more
prayerful. 

>From My Life Today - Page 119