Do Not Neglect the Gift You Have

From Gospel Translations

Dear brother, you may not have big dreams for your life. You may not expect God to do great things through you. You may seem, like Saul, “little in your own eyes” (1 Samuel 15:17) — not very talented or charismatic, not much of a leader. But in the Lord Jesus Christ, God has given you a gift. And as Paul told the young Timothy, so God tells his young men today: “Do not neglect the gift you have” (1 Timothy 4:14).

You may not have ability for preaching and teaching, as Timothy did. But the Holy Spirit does not leave any Christian giftless. “As each has received a gift, use it” (1 Peter 4:10). “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (Romans 12:6). Not only preaching and teaching but serving and giving, helping and healing, leading and administrating are gifts “empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11).

Maybe your ability seems small compared to others. You have received not five talents but one. Even still, the Master who entrusted it to you will return to see how faithfully you handled your “little.” And his “well done” will rest not on how much you received but on how much you did with what you received (Matthew 25:14–30).

You may have a small vision for your life; God does not. His will for you is fruitful labor, Christ-honoring ministry, eternity-shaping influence. So, whatever you do, don’t bury your talent in the dirt or hide it in your pocket. “Do not neglect the gift you have.”

To that end, let’s consider three reasons we might neglect what God has given us, as well as how Jesus rescues and commissions us.

1. We tolerate ungodliness.

Some men neglect the gift God has given them because they have neglected the godliness God requires of them.

Before Paul tells Timothy to take up his gift, he tells him, “Train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). Use your gift, Timothy, but let your gift flow from your godliness. Make maturity, not ministry, your first ambition.

If a man actively tolerates ungodliness in his life, he will either use his gift hypocritically or — more commonly — neglect to use his gift at all. How many men have heard of some need in the church or the city but have been held back by their lust or laziness, their doubt or indifference? (I can certainly remember moments like that.) Even if they want to meet the need, they know they can’t teach or lead or serve with a clear conscience. So, they don’t.

Some men could be discipling younger men by now. Others could be leading their church in song. Still others could be taking steps toward the mission field or joining a church plant or starting a prayer meeting or launching evangelistic outreaches. But they still watch those shows. They still waste their weekends. They still weekly confess the same sin they’ve struggled with for five years. Season after season, they remain on injured reserve.

Brother, if sin has kept you sitting on the sidelines, the solution isn’t to rush into the game right now. Rather, “train yourself for godliness.” Devote your attention to “the words of the faith” (1 Timothy 4:6). “Keep a close watch on yourself” (1 Timothy 4:16). Seek and read and pray and fast and fight. And as you do, defy all despair that yesterday’s sins will follow you into the future. You have “the living God” on your side, the same Savior who shattered death (1 Timothy 4:10). He can handle your struggle.

In Christ, godliness is wonderfully, powerfully possible. So, you need not neglect your gift any longer.

2. We have false humility.

Other men neglect their gift because they hold a false view of humility, a view that confuses godly ambition with selfish ambition and active service with self-seeking.

Note the vigorous initiative Paul associates with Timothy’s gift: “Command and teach these things. . . . Set the believers an example. . . . Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:11–13). Maybe Timothy, still a “youth” (verse 12), balked at such commands. Who was he to take such initiative among the people of God?

And who are we? Even if our own gifts call for less assertiveness than Timothy’s, a godly use of any gift will call for some initiative and action, some dreaming and daring. If we’re going to use a gift (and not neglect it), then we’ll need to do more than wait till someone asks us. We’ll need to take what little step we can right now, and then take another, and then another.

Of course, some wariness is warranted. Some men really do “preach Christ from envy and rivalry” (Philippians 1:15). Some, like Diotrephes of old, like to put themselves first (3 John 9). Some bypass their pastors’ counsel and appoint themselves leaders. We rightly fear the pride that drives such men.

But if we remember what our gifts really are (gifts, not attainments) and what our gifts are really for (serving others, not showcasing self), then actively using our gifts can become a profound expression of humility and love. We are stewards and servants, not masters and owners. Like the disciples carrying the baskets of bread, we take what Jesus gives and hand it to his people. We’ve never multiplied a loaf; nor have we ever made a gift. To Christ be the glory.

Will pride still beckon as we seek to use our gifts? Surely. If even Paul required a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble, I doubt you and I will get beyond the battle with pride (2 Corinthians 12:7). Sometimes, we may even be wise to take a break from a gift to guard our own heart, to make sure the steward isn’t acting like a king. But most of the time, better to use our gift and fight our pride than fight our pride by not using our gift. For if we really are “stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10), who are we to withhold that gift-grace from others?

3. We’re too impatient.

Finally, some men neglect their gift because they don’t realize (or maybe resist) how much patient practice the gifts of God require.

Hear how Paul follows up his warning to Timothy about neglecting his gift: “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress” (1 Timothy 4:15). Timothy has a gift, but his gift is not as fruitful as it could be. Timothy has a gift, but his gift has not come fully assembled. Timothy has a gift, but his gift requires diligent and extensive practice.

Do you have a vision for giftedness that includes such practice? Some men, discerning in themselves a desire to teach or lead or serve, find to their dismay that their teaching or leading or serving leaves much to be desired. The Bible study heard more silence than speech. The sermon met with merely polite comments. The small group started quite small indeed and got smaller. Men in these positions may wonder if they don’t have the gift they thought they did.

They may not. At the same time, they may not realize that the gifts of God usually arrive as acorns, not oaks — as seeds, not trees. Our gifts come to us as toddlers in need of training, as real but immature aspirations that need refinement in the fire of practice and failure. If we despise the day of small gifts, we may never see the day of big fruitfulness.

Not everyone who wants to preach or lead a small group or start a ministry should do so. But a man can hardly know unless he patiently practices. And what might such practice look like? Get as many reps as you can. Try and fail and try again. Humble yourself in the wake of mistakes and learn from them. Ask pastors and other mature believers for honest feedback. And saturate each step with prayer that the God who gives particular abilities would make you fruitful in the exercise of yours.

Practice can be slow and painstaking and, at times, deeply discouraging. I know I’m not the first man who has wanted to give up rather than get up and try again. But remember: These small, faithful, sometimes painful steps are one crucial way you refuse to neglect the gift God has given you. And when the Master who entrusted this talent to you returns, how grateful you will be that you did not neglect your gift but practiced it, made progress with it, and so glorified the God who gave it.