God made you before you were born. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.” (Psalm 139:13-15) God knows the end from the beginning. Is it possible that God gave you gifts for His purposes and His glory? “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Ps. 139:16) When God gives things to His Children it is for their good and His glory. (James 1:17-18) The things of this world, its glory and ways, are contrary to God and opposed to His purposes. We experience this world and are familiar with its ways and its lure can blind and deceive us. In this setting of Truth’s eternal reality and the fiction and notions of this temporal world we are called to live.

God is unseen and His thoughts are beyond searching out. Still among the family of God there is a destiny by His call. God equips us with everything good for doing His will as He works in us. (Heb. 13:20-21) Various attributes, talents, drives and desires within shape the pathway of our life. However, the hidden gifts of God are a greater force. The gift of faith is our birthright. (Eph. 1:13-14) The deposit of love, the position of humility, wisdom and integrity are often hidden qualities bearing the nature of God’s own likeness. The world ridicules humility and wisdom as it gloats over pride and shrewd trickery. Physical strength and beauty, quick wit, intellect and glib speech are  favored attributes of this world.

We might consider some gifts of God to be of little value, or even a hindrance, (they might be in this world), but in truth these are attributes and blessings that distinguish Children of the King. When you overlook insult and forgive offense quickly and maintain integrity in the face of coercion or threat, it is the product of God’s gift of which you may not even be aware. When you love the outcast and downtrodden with friendship and compassionate understanding, supporting from behind, rather than to be seen, it is the product of God’s gift at work. When you believe the word of God, having never seen, yet hold firm to his promise after it appears to have failed, it is God’s gift of sustaining faith and hope.

Your greatest gifts are hidden or taken for granted, because they were not earned with your efforts or awarded by your actions, but are unmerited gifts by grace alone. The enemy knows you belong to God, so he tempts and accuses you. “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7) Upon Yeshua’s return we will see the Glory of God reflected through our created being, and we will say in earnest, “To Him be the Glory.”