How do you plan to grow spiritually in 2026?
Most people don’t have a plan and that will probably make 2026 problematic. We need to prepare for life with care. We need to manage our time, talents and treasure as good stewards. We are responsible to God for what He has given us. Jesus gave us the parable of the Talents to help us appreciate the fact that we are accountable to God for how we spend our lives. We are given gifts by God to share those gifts with others.
You are gifted and you need to express your gratitude to God by using those gifts. Your plan does not need to be complicated. In fact as Pastor Rick Warren teaches in the video below, it can be as simple as ABCD.
This is a serious issue. Do we know what happened to those who buried their talents? Not good! Just as we need to exercise to stay health physically, the same is true spiritually. Let’s get serious about a plan for 2026 if that has slipped your mind during the first month of January. Get fit! It becomes a win-win. All who receive the gifts from us are blessed and we ourselves benefit now and in eternity. Our rewards in heaven will be based on what we did with the talents given to us. What we do or don’t do with our lives will produce consequences.
Use of talents or gifts comes after salvation. Salvation is a gift that cannot be earned in any way. However, after we receive salvation, we are called by God to do good works. We cannot sit back, bury our talent and think that it doesn’t matter. Far from it! God saved us FOR good works. We are not saved BY good works.
Those who reject God will not only lose their salvation, they will lose rewards and will be judged by Godfor burying the talent. This is truly a very serious matter for Christians and non-Christians alike.
The Parable of the Talents – Matthew 25:14-30
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
