What am I supposed to do with the time and gifts God has given me?
"Houston, we have a problem."
You probably recognize that phrase. On April 13, 1970, Apollo 13 astronauts spoke those words after an oxygen tank exploded on their way to the moon. Three people were stranded in space with limited supplies and a damaged spacecraft.
What followed was an incredible rescue mission. NASA had to figure out how to get three astronauts home using only what was already on board—turning a lunar module designed for two people for two days into a lifeboat for three people for four days. They couldn't beam supplies up. They had to work with what they had.
And somehow, impossibly, it worked. Three people who should have died made it home.
Here's why that story matters: It's a lot like what God is doing right now.
Ocala, we have a problem
Let's get our bearings. Here's where we are as humans:
God created everything. It was perfect. We, as humanity, decided we knew better than God and didn't listen to Him. In doing so, we invited sin into the relationship and were separated from God.
That happened because of our choices, not because of what He did. He created perfection. We destroyed it.
But from the very beginning, God promised a redeemer. He said He would send His Son Jesus to pay for the sins of the entire world—past, present, and future. Jesus lived a sinless life, allowed Himself to be killed for our sins, and then rose from the dead, defeating death forever.
Before He returned to heaven, Jesus said, "I'm going to prepare a place for you. And I'm sending a Helper—the Holy Spirit—who will be with you."
That's where we are right now. We're in a broken world that God is in the process of redeeming. We have a problem, and He's on a salvation mission. And here's the stunning part: He invites us to be part of it.
Open hands, not clenched fists
Before we go further, try something with me. Put your hands out in front of you.
Now clench your fists tight.
When we do this with the gifts God gives us, we're saying, "This is MINE. No one can touch it." We see this with toddlers all the time, but let's be honest—adults do it too. We just don't admit it.
Now open your hands.
God calls us to hold His gifts with open hands. Why? Because He gives these gifts with purpose. He's generous, not so we can accumulate more stuff, but so He can be shown to be the good God that He is. And He does that through the sharing of these gifts.
Over the next two weeks, we're talking about three gifts God gives us: time, talent, and treasure. Today, let's focus on time and talent.
The gift of time
Psalm 90:1-6 was written by Moses, and it says something profound: God has been our safe place since before He even created mountains or the world itself. He existed forever. Everything belongs to Him—from this device you're reading on to the sun in the sky. Every good gift comes from God.
Why does this matter? Because understanding that changes our perspective about everything.
Once you grasp that the breath you just took was His too—that you're even borrowing that—suddenly you're not as protective about your 401(k), your house, your car, your schedule, or whatever thing came to mind just now.
It's all His anyway.
Now, here's what Moses points out: "A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has gone by" (Psalm 90:4). God's perspective on time is radically different from ours.
Think about your life compared to eternity. One pastor illustrated it this way: Imagine a 100-foot rope. Take a red marker and color just three inches at the very end. Those three inches? That's your entire life. The rest of the rope? That's eternity.
We can kind of wrap our heads around that. But here's the question that really matters:
Why does God give us time at all?
He doesn't have to. He's the God of the universe. We're the ones who rebelled against Him. He could have been done with us immediately. There's no contractual obligation here.
So why?
2 Peter 3:9 gives us the answer: "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."
God provides time because we need it. He knows how broken we are, how selfish, how stubborn. And in His patient, lovingkindness, He pursues us for redemption.
He doesn't have to give us this time. But He does.
How are you spending your 24 hours?
Each day we get 24 fresh, brand-new hours. 1,440 minutes. 86,400 seconds. Time we've never lived before and will never live again.
So how are we doing with that time?
Here's some perspective: The average American spends about 10 hours on sleep and personal care, 5 hours on leisure and sports, 2.6 hours watching TV, and over 5 hours on their phone—and that number has been going up 14% every year.
We're not great at time management. As a society, we'd probably grade ourselves a D at best.
But here's what Scripture says: "What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes" (James 4:14). And "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:15-16).
Compared to eternity, our time here is extremely limited.
So here's the question: What does your calendar look like with God in it?
What part of your day-to-day are you holding onto tightly, even when God is clearly directing you in a different path? Are you saying, "This is MY time. Don't you dare ask me to do something on a Tuesday"?
Meanwhile, God has been patient with us. He had every authority to end it all, and He didn't. He gave us time.
Are we holding His gift of time with open hands?
The gift of talent
Now let's talk about what the church often calls "talent"—but what the Bible calls spiritual gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 lists some of these: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues, and interpreting tongues. There are more throughout Scripture.
Here's what you need to know about these gifts:
God gives them to us through the Holy Spirit. Not because we earned them or deserve them, but because He is generous.
He gives them with purpose. These gifts aren't for us to hoard or show off. They're designed to "uplift the church body and equip us for the ministry mission He has us on." Notice the phrase in verse 7: "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."
The gifts God gives—the abilities, the talents, the experiences—are all meant to lift up the body of Christ for the work of ministry. Remember, God is bringing about the salvation of the world, and part of that is happening right here, right now, through His people.
His gifts are manifestations of Himself. This is beautiful. Each gift is the Holy Spirit working in the lives of believers to minister to others.
Here's an example: There have been many times when the right words came out of someone's mouth at exactly the right moment for someone who desperately needed to hear them—and the person speaking didn't even fully understand what they were saying. That's the Holy Spirit working. God spoke through one person to reach another, both being led by Him.
But here's the flip side: We can think we're really smart and know exactly what someone needs to hear. But if we're not being led by the Lord through love, what are we doing? We're just talking. That doesn't help anybody.
Redeemed people are empowered people
It’s difficult to really embrace the truth that what God has called us to, we are not capable of on our own.
Read that again.
The God of the universe has called us to something we cannot do without Him. We have nothing. We cannot save the world. We can't even manage to stay off our phones. So how are people who can't even control their screen time going to speak words of life that bring someone from death to life?
It's not us. It's God.
Ephesians 2:10 is one of the most encouraging verses in the Bible: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Let that sink in. We are God's workmanship. We are His project. He created us, redeemed us, equipped us, and then directed us toward good works that He already prepared.
He did it all. He's in control of it all.
It's not about us. It's about the God we serve.
God uses everything—even our failures
God has given us gifts to steward well. Those gifts include time, talent, and experiences and abilities that uniquely qualify us for the good works He's prepared for us to do.
Here's how this has worked throughout history:
God has a plan. Satan tries to twist it, introducing lies like "God doesn't know what He's talking about" or "God's holding something back from you." We fall into sin and stop believing God is good.
Then God introduces Himself back into the situation, takes our messed-up choices, redeems them, and writes an even better story.
This is what He's been doing forever. What happened in the Garden of Eden happens to us every week. We go through life, believe a lie, sin, and then God introduces Himself back in. We repent, and God uses that repentance and those boneheaded choices to equip us to speak to the next person doing the same thing.
He's willing to use our own selfish choices to continue His story.
He takes the drug addict who's gotten sober and equips that person to speak life to the next person He's saving.
He sends the single mom who's trying to figure it out people who've walked that road and can guide her.
To the rage-filled person who can't stop seeing faults in everyone else, He sends people who've walked that lonely road and know what it takes to put that anger down.
God doesn't waste anything—even our failures.
Ocala, we have a problem
Our oxygen tank is blown, and we're going to die without a miracle.
But we serve a God who takes the supplies available (the people), redeems them, equips them, and uses them for the eternal work of salvation.
We are the right gifts for the job—not because we're impressive, but because He orchestrated it ahead of time.
Look, if we were picking a team to reach our city with the gospel, we probably wouldn't choose ourselves. We're aware of our flaws, our failures, our inadequacies. But this is the team of people God is equipping to introduce our neighbors to Jesus.
And here's the truth: Redeemed people are empowered people.
How open are your hands?
Let's bring this home with some questions:
How open are your hands? Where do you need to open them a little bit more? What are you clenching—time, abilities, resources—that God is asking you to release?
How are you doing with time management? What role does God play in your calendar?
How has God equipped you to reach the lost? What experiences has He led you through that have equipped you for a special mission? Are you listening?
What has this revealed about your spiritual maturity? How well are you stewarding the gifts God has given you?
The God of the universe is making things happen because that's what He does. He will do it with or without us. He offers us the privilege of being partners with Him, but He'll tell His story either way.
He is redeeming creation.
Will you follow Him?
Here's the reality: God doesn't need you to be perfect. He doesn't need you to have it all together. He doesn't need you to be the smartest, most talented, most capable person.
He just needs you to open your hands.
To acknowledge that everything—your time, your abilities, your experiences—is His in the first place. To trust that He knows what He's doing. To believe that He can use even your failures for His purposes.
You are not too messed up for God to use. In fact, your mess is part of how He's equipped you to reach people who are walking through similar struggles.
The astronauts on Apollo 13 made it home not because they had perfect equipment, but because they worked with what they had. God is doing the same thing with us.
He's taking broken, imperfect people and using us to bring His message of hope and redemption to a broken world.
So stop clenching your fists. Open your hands. Trust Him with your time. Trust Him with your talents. Trust Him with your story—even the messy parts.
He's already prepared the good works for you to walk in. Your job is just to follow Him.
If you're wrestling with these questions—if you're wondering how God could possibly use you, or if you're not sure how to open your hands and trust Him—we'd love to talk with you. Reach out to us at ocala@weareneighborhood.church.
Ocala has a problem. And God is inviting you to be part of the solution.
