Really, sometimes it’s hard to know your own heart. TheBible — and our own experience with ourselves — tells us that’s true. I’ve been thinking of a simple saying lately that really helps me with this…
“By Your grace, for Your glory”
In other words, whatever I’m able to do, whatever talents and gifts I have, I only have by the grace God has given to me. He’s given me those abilities. I didn’t create them myself. I didn’t decide to sing, work hard at it, and – wham! I can sing! No, that’s a gift, a talent, an ability God gave me that at some point I recognized, developed, and began to utilize.
That’s the “what”. The next question is “why?” The answer to that is, for the glory of God. He gave me the gift to bring His Kingdom from heaven to earth, to proclaim His infinite worth, to show His character and nature to the world, to bring Him glory.
This keeps me from making two mistakes – esteeming myself too highly, or esteeming myself too lightly. I don’t have the right to overestimate my value or to underestimate it. What God gave me was a free gift – I can’t claim any responsibility for it, but neither can I leave it laying there undeveloped, unused, like the unwise servant who buried what he was given.