Work Faithfully Where You Are

So then, each of us will be accountable to God. Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another. Romans 14:12, 13, NRSV.

When we have done all that we can do, we are to count ourselves unprofitable servants. There is no room for pride in our efforts; for we are dependent every moment upon the grace of God, and we have nothing that we did not receive. Says Jesus, “Without me ye can do nothing.”

We are responsible only for the talents which God has bestowed upon us. The Lord does not reprove the servants who have doubled their talents, who have done according to their ability. Those who thus prove their fidelity can be commended and rewarded; but those who loiter in the vineyard, those who do nothing, or do negligently the work of the Lord, make manifest their real interest in the work to which they have been called, by their works.... The talent given to them for the glory of God and the salvation of souls has been unappreciated and abused. The good it might have done is left unaccomplished, and the Lord cannot receive His own with usury.

Let none mourn that they have not larger talents to use for the Master. While you are dissatisfied and complaining, you are losing precious time and wasting valuable opportunities. Thank God for the ability you have, and pray that you may be enabled to meet the responsibilities that have been placed upon you. If you desire greater usefulness, go to work and acquire what you mourn for. Go to work with steady patience, and do your very best, irrespective of what others are doing. “Every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Let not your thought or your words be “O that I had a larger work! O that I were in this or that position!”

Do your duty where you are. Make the best investments possible with your entrusted gift in the very place where your work will count the most before God. Put away all murmuring and strife. Labor not for the supremacy. Be not envious of the talents of others; for that will not increase your ability to do a good or a great work. Use your gift in meekness, in humility, in trusting faith, and wait till the day of reckoning, and you will have no cause for grief or shame.—The Review and Herald, May 1, 1888.