Last Thursday we listened to a message by Ricky Myatt, Pastor at Seacoast Community Church. His main message seemed to be that God’s faithfulness is shown not so much in his provision but more so his presence.

I think there is a balance. I would say that God’s faithfulness is shown in the provision of his presence. With that said, Pastor Myatt’s definition of ‘provision’ is weighted by our sense of what we need and more often, what we want. God’s faithfulness is shown not in providing what we want, but providing what we need. This is a shift in perspective. In the United States, the line between what we need and what we want is muddled by culture where ease and relaxation are virtuous. Often times what we really need, what will help us mature, etc is rarely realized. So this got me thinking.

We often study the Parable of the Talents to mean that God has given certain people talents, abilities, etc to use for the kingdom of God, to invest in people, and produce returns. We look on Talents as positive abilities, resources, etc; positive in a world’s definition, but what if we considered Talents from a God perspective. What if we considered the events and happenings in our lives which we have no control over, that we consider as bad luck, to be talents that God wants us to be using to help other people. Events and circumstances that ‘happen’ to us could be used for good if we change our perspective from an individual introspective view to a community-extrospective view (is that word? — haha).