Appreciation and value show that you respect what you have received and are grateful to the One who gave it to you. All good things come from God, who is the owner of everything. What God gives us is for us to value, appreciate, and take care of, because afterwards we will have to give an account to God for what He has given us. He who takes care of what he has received will receive more closely, but he who does not appreciate, nor care, and treats things carelessly, will not grow. You do not depend on people, but you depend on God, who sees everything, because where there is laziness and manipulation, everything comes to a standstill. The talent that God has given must first be used to praise God, because by grace we have received it. If we go back to the Old Testament, a talent was 34 kilos or 75 pounds of gold or silver. Nowadays, gold is sold by the troy ounce at a value of more than US$ 3,500.00 per ounce. Do the math yourself on how many ounces are in a pound and how many pounds are in a kilo (Matthew 25:14-30). With a quick calculation, an Old Testament talent makes a person a millionaire today. The talent that God has given us has great value; he who uses it well receives more, but he who misuses it loses everything, and he who lets laziness dominate his life goes nowhere and in the end will only carry a name, because what he had, he lost. If God has given you a talent to play an instrument, you must do it the best you can and teach others to do it too; do not be selfish and keep it only to yourself, because when you teach others, you do the will of God. Pero if you adopt an attitude that what is yours is only yours, a selfish attitude, you push people away from you yourself. If you start thinking that for everything you do people must pay you, because if they don’t pay you, you won’t do it, you do not appreciate what God has given you, since God did not charge you for your talent. Appreciating and valuing applies to everything in our life; in the first place we must value our life and not do things that harm us, for example, the matter of drinking, drugs, and partying, which ultimately work against our health. This also counts for our salvation; let us value our salvation which we have received by grace, we did not pay for it, nor did our good works lead us to salvation, but thanks be to God who sent His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Appreciate and value your marriage and your family. Did you know that appreciation has more value than money? He who appreciates takes care, loves, and forgives. Money is not everything; when the prodigal son decided to go home, because he knew that at home they appreciate him, he himself said that in his father’s house even the servants live better. Everything we appreciate in our family, we appreciate ourselves; everything God has given us, we must appreciate. Even when a plant is appreciated, it grows and produces beautiful flowers, because appreciation is the foundation of all growth. It is not what you have, but the way you treat people.
Pastor Marcel Balootje.