Does my talents come from me or from God?

[ZoonCorp]

This is something I have been struggling with for a little while now, something I fon’t fully comprehend:

Let’s say I make a beautiful painting. Since everything beautiful and good comes from God, was it really me that produced the image, or was it God?

I also read about a Catholic olympian competitor who won gold medal women’s 5000m finals:
“Immediately after crossing the finish line, she pulled a picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help from under her jersey, showed it to the cameras and held it up to her face in prayer. . Celebrate all those who help make her care known across the globe!”

So did she won thanks to her hard training, endeavour and talent, or did she won because our Holy Mother did so that she won?

The reason I am struggling with this is beacuse when i accomplish something nice and great, I think of this and say to myself: “But, maybe is wasn’t my hard training and skill that accomplished this, maybe it’s God that made me succeed and allowed me to accomplish/produce this”. To me it’s disencouraging as it’s like I don’t truly am able to achieve things myself, everything is a result of God. It’s not that I don’t want help from God, it’s the question wheter it’s truly me that made the beautiful painting, or God.

Please help me come to sense with this.

 

[davidv]

This is something I have been struggling with for a little while now, something I fon’t fully comprehend:

Let’s say I make a beautiful painting. Since everything beautiful and good comes from God, was it really me that produced the image, or was it God?

I also read about a Catholic olympian competitor who won gold medal women’s 5000m finals:
“Immediately after crossing the finish line, she pulled a picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help from under her jersey, showed it to the cameras and held it up to her face in prayer. . Celebrate all those who help make her care known across the globe!”

So did she won thanks to her hard training, endeavour and talent, or did she won because our Holy Mother did so that she won?

The reason I am struggling with this is beacuse when i accomplish something nice and great, I think of this and say to myself: “But, maybe is wasn’t my hard training and skill that accomplished this, maybe it’s God that made me succeed and allowed me to accomplish/produce this”. To me it’s disencouraging as it’s like I don’t truly am able to achieve good things myself, everything is a result of God.

Please help me come to sense with this.

The direct answer to you Title questions is, both.
God gave you the talents and abilities you have. You have spent time and effort developing them and applying them to produce the nice and great accomplishments.

 

[Dale_M]

A visitor to my profile page recently mentioned a Scripture passage. That passage may be appropriate to this discussion.

1 Corinthians 3:5-7

5
What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one.

6
I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.

7
Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth.

 

[DA1973]

I’ll resist the temptation to answer that your talent is “on loan from God.”

I vote for giving all credit to God, including for the determination, discipline, and hard work you need to succeed.

But then, I have a lot of predestination in my background.

 

[JDaniel]

This is something I have been struggling with for a little while now, something I fon’t fully comprehend:

Let’s say I make a beautiful painting. Since everything beautiful and good comes from God, was it really me that produced the image, or was it God?

I also read about a Catholic olympian competitor who won gold medal women’s 5000m finals:
“Immediately after crossing the finish line, she pulled a picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help from under her jersey, showed it to the cameras and held it up to her face in prayer. . Celebrate all those who help make her care known across the globe!”

So did she won thanks to her hard training, endeavour and talent, or did she won because our Holy Mother did so that she won?

The reason I am struggling with this is beacuse when i accomplish something nice and great, I think of this and say to myself: “But, maybe is wasn’t my hard training and skill that accomplished this, maybe it’s God that made me succeed and allowed me to accomplish/produce this”. To me it’s disencouraging as it’s like I don’t truly am able to achieve things myself, everything is a result of God. It’s not that I don’t want help from God, it’s the question wheter it’s truly me that made the beautiful painting, or God.

Please help me come to sense with this.

ZC:

Discouraged? Why? Imagine, God chooses you to accomplish something extraordinary! God chooses you.

This life seems so important, so all-inclusive. But, except for sin, God controls all else - and He makes the delivery system. That should not lead to any discouragement. Rather, that should lead to the bond he wants with you. There’s nothing less in being God’s child. Who better to share your co-accomplishments with? There’s no one better, and there’s no thing better.

If I share an accomplishment with my best earthly friend, he’ll forget about it in a few weeks. If it is shared with God, my Father, He’ll remember it forever - even after it’s long gone from my memory.

God bless,
jd

 

[JDaniel]

ZC:

Discouraged? Why? Imagine, God chooses you to accomplish something extraordinary! God chooses you.

This life seems so important, so all-inclusive. But, except for sin, God controls all else - and He makes the delivery system. That should not lead to any discouragement. Rather, that should lead to the bond he wants with you. There’s nothing less in being God’s child. Who better to share your co-accomplishments with? There’s no one better, and there’s no thing better.

If I share an accomplishment with my best earthly friend, he’ll forget about it in a few weeks. If it is shared with God, my Father, He’ll remember it forever - even after it’s long gone from my memory.

God bless,
jd

 

[atassina]

You are nothing except the existence God gifts to you.
You have nothing except the possessions gifts to you.

What you do with these is your gift to God.

 

[Joe_5859]

I remember in my high school theology class when the teacher pointed out that we should give credit to God for all the good we do. But then, when we sin, we alone bear the responsibility. I recall thinking, “Man, who is getting the short-end of the stick in that arrangement!?”

So I understand where you’re coming from. But I think David is correct that the answer is simply “both”. Dale’s quote from Scripture is very apt, too.

God created everything He created the earth and all that is in it. He created out bodies. He created our DNA. He created the materials out of which human beings make the track, and the materials out of which human beings craft the shoes. To not give God credit would be to ignore the fact that God is the all-good Creator of everthing.

But certainly that doesn’t mean we are irrelavant. We have been given the free will to either cooperate with God or not.

I think the parable of the talents also illustrates this point. The master gave talents to three of his servants. Two of them invested the talents and when he came back, they returned to the Master double what he had given them. But the third buried his talent in the sand and gained nothing.

It is up to us to choose what to do with the talents God gave us. Do we work hard to develop them? Or do we bury them in the sand and ignore them?

 

[Julia_Mae]

This is something I have been struggling with for a little while now, something I fon’t fully comprehend:

Let’s say I make a beautiful painting. Since everything beautiful and good comes from God, was it really me that produced the image, or was it God?

1st: why would you characterize a painting, beautiful ot ugly as “good?” Or winning something? It isn’t. It’s a thing or a state of being.

Only God is good and all that is good comes from Him. If we are present when good happens and if we are a tool through which God works and cognizant of that at the time, then we are honored and humbled. If someone sees a work and it has an effect of goodness on them, that’s God. Could be a cheesy Hallmark card or a great classical masterpiece. The goodness can be just as powerful and always comes from God.

Talents are a function of genes and environment. How we do or don’t use talent may reflect either something about us or something about God. A writer can make lotsa money producing porn or less writing a Truth that inspires. In-spirit-ation comes from God.

You and I choose: God or not-God. Control or surrender, love or selfishness. Read the story of Andrew Lakey.

When God works through us and we know it, there is no greater feeling. It’s like glimpsing our future existence in Heaven.

But - as a human being you are unique: whatever God uses you for or accomplishes through you is shaped by you and who you are and what effort you put into it. It’s not either-or, it’s Divine partnership.

 

[edwest2]

This is something I have been struggling with for a little while now, something I fon’t fully comprehend:

Let’s say I make a beautiful painting. Since everything beautiful and good comes from God, was it really me that produced the image, or was it God?

I also read about a Catholic olympian competitor who won gold medal women’s 5000m finals:
“Immediately after crossing the finish line, she pulled a picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help from under her jersey, showed it to the cameras and held it up to her face in prayer. . Celebrate all those who help make her care known across the globe!”

So did she won thanks to her hard training, endeavour and talent, or did she won because our Holy Mother did so that she won?

The reason I am struggling with this is beacuse when i accomplish something nice and great, I think of this and say to myself: “But, maybe is wasn’t my hard training and skill that accomplished this, maybe it’s God that made me succeed and allowed me to accomplish/produce this”. To me it’s disencouraging as it’s like I don’t truly am able to achieve things myself, everything is a result of God. It’s not that I don’t want help from God, it’s the question wheter it’s truly me that made the beautiful painting, or God.

Please help me come to sense with this.

We are taught that the Holy Spirit provides various gifts, skill/talents, as He wills.

bible.cc/1_corinthians/12-11.htm

As someone who has taught basic art skills to young people, I recall one child who showed remarkable talent. Yes, he drew the drawings but I believe God places certain desires within us early in life, and even later in life. It is a gift.

As long as your heart and mind are aligned with God, then do not give it a second of thought or worry. If you are humble before God and thankful, He will guide you as His instrument of good works. Do not worry about how. As long as God is a part of your life, He will help.

Peace,
Ed

 

[greylorn]

This is something I have been struggling with for a little while now, something I fon’t fully comprehend:

Let’s say I make a beautiful painting. Since everything beautiful and good comes from God, was it really me that produced the image, or was it God?

I also read about a Catholic olympian competitor who won gold medal women’s 5000m finals:
“Immediately after crossing the finish line, she pulled a picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help from under her jersey, showed it to the cameras and held it up to her face in prayer. . Celebrate all those who help make her care known across the globe!”

So did she won thanks to her hard training, endeavour and talent, or did she won because our Holy Mother did so that she won?

The reason I am struggling with this is beacuse when i accomplish something nice and great, I think of this and say to myself: “But, maybe is wasn’t my hard training and skill that accomplished this, maybe it’s God that made me succeed and allowed me to accomplish/produce this”. To me it’s disencouraging as it’s like I don’t truly am able to achieve things myself, everything is a result of God. It’s not that I don’t want help from God, it’s the question wheter it’s truly me that made the beautiful painting, or God.

Please help me come to sense with this.

Good question, one of several with which I wrestled a half century ago. It can only be answered in one of these ways:

1. 
   *]You adhere to your beliefs and follow their logical consequences.
   
   *]You adhere to your beliefs but ignore their logical consequences, thereby making up anything that you want to believe, maybe even starting a new religion.
   
   *]You adopt a different set of fundamental beliefs which lead to the observation of reality that you currently experience, which is clearly that you are doing your own innovative thinking and creating.
   
   Under option 1 you are a machine created by an omnipotent God, all of you, body, soul, and brain, and have about as much free will as a Buick. You can only paint exactly the paintings that God knew your were going to paint back when He created you.
   
   Option 2 means that you get to believe in the same God, but can declare that you are actually doing your own creating. This may be more emotionally satisfying, but it leads to a state of cognitive dissonance within your own mind, which is certain to have long term adverse effects.
   
   Option 3 was my choice. I chose to believe that a non-omnipotent God (which fits the facts learned by science) is responsible for most of creation, things like my brain and body. However, God must not be blamed for creating the soul, which has always existed, and is responsible for my occasional fits of creativity.
   
   Incidentally, Jesus Christ himself supports this viewpoint, in the Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30 he makes a clear point in favor of capitalism (guess what happened to the loser) and the importance of men doing their best. There is no suggestion at the outset of the “Talents” experiment that its outcome is predetermined.

 

[davidv]

{snip}Under option 1 you are a machine created by an omnipotent God, all of you, body, soul, and brain, and have about as much free will as a Buick. You can only paint exactly the paintings that God knew your were going to paint back when He created you.
{snip}

How can you possibly draw this conclusion?

If you choose to stop at your neighborhood stop sign, did you give up your free will? If so, how? Are you not free to not stop the next you come upon it?

 

[504Katrin]

You are nothing except the existence God gifts to you.
You have nothing except the possessions gifts to you.

What you do with these is your gift to God.

one of the most beautiful posts I’ve ever read on here! That’s all we need to know right there put in a couple of words only…

 

[oval]

This is something I have been struggling with for a little while now, something I fon’t fully comprehend:

Let’s say I make a beautiful painting. Since everything beautiful and good comes from God, was it really me that produced the image, or was it God?

I also read about a Catholic olympian competitor who won gold medal women’s 5000m finals:
“Immediately after crossing the finish line, she pulled a picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help from under her jersey, showed it to the cameras and held it up to her face in prayer. . Celebrate all those who help make her care known across the globe!”

So did she won thanks to her hard training, endeavour and talent, or did she won because our Holy Mother did so that she won?

The reason I am struggling with this is beacuse when i accomplish something nice and great, I think of this and say to myself: “But, maybe is wasn’t my hard training and skill that accomplished this, maybe it’s God that made me succeed and allowed me to accomplish/produce this”. To me it’s disencouraging as it’s like I don’t truly am able to achieve things myself, everything is a result of God. It’s not that I don’t want help from God, it’s the question wheter it’s truly me that made the beautiful painting, or God.

Please help me come to sense with this.

She didn’t just finish one painting…she finished 200 paintings all at once… you may as well get back to work.

 

[greylorn]

How can you possibly draw this conclusion?

If you choose to stop at your neighborhood stop sign, did you give up your free will? If so, how? Are you not free to not stop the next you come upon it?

Yours is an incompetent reply. It should include my version of option 1, and an argument derived therefrom. Lacking that I must conclude that you have no clue as to what I wrote, and would not benefit from a reply.

 

[davidv]

Yours is an incompetent reply. It should include my version of option 1, and an argument derived therefrom. Lacking that I must conclude that you have no clue as to what I wrote, and would not benefit from a reply.

Your option 1 is, and I quote

greylorn:

You adhere to your beliefs and follow their logical consequences.

How is this an expression of not having free will? Is there some hidden meaning in what appears to be a very straight forward statement?

 

[greylorn]

Your option 1 is, and I quote
How is this an expression of not having free will? Is there some hidden meaning in what appears to be a very straight forward statement?

Thank you for clarifying your question.

Suppose that you study Number Theory and agree with it. Suppose also that you agree to accept the rules of logic, or in this case, the subset known as “formal mathematical logic” and its associated symbolic notations (+ - = etc.).

You are therefore constrained to believe that 2+2=4, 9x3=27, etc. You have no choice in the matter, no free will whatsoever.

If you disagree with one of these arithmetical derivations from number theory and logic, you will be regarded as no longer fully sane. Moreover, you will have a difficult time getting a job as an accountant, unless you work for the government.

What to do if your perceptions contradict logic? (This is a question that UFO abductees have had to deal with.) Suppose that you go to a chicken store and buy 3 boxes of 9 chickens, being careful to count them before returning them to your previously empty coop.

Next morning you count the chickens and find 28. How can you account for that?

The obvious reason is operator error. You miscounted, somehow. So you eat the 28 chickens and repeat the experiment, this time with sober friends to assist the counting, verifying that the coop was empty when you installed the birds, and help with the recount. Same results.

What do you do?

Your only solution is to disavow some of the initial principles. You can claim to find an error in number theory, or you can invent your own logic. One or the other, or both, is what followers of belief systems typically do,

Of course, this is merely an analogy, but I claim that it is absolutely applicable to the way that humans think. This is true of all of us, religionists and scientists alike.

Those who dislike the conclusions of the religion in which they were raised simply reinterpret its scriptures, or invent their own. Scientists who cannot get Big Bang theory to work out according to the rules of mathematical logic, simply invent another level of garbage (multiverse theory) under which to bury its flaws.

 

[davidv]

Thank you for clarifying your question.

Suppose that you study Number Theory and agree with it. Suppose also that you agree to accept the rules of logic, or in this case, the subset known as “formal mathematical logic” and its associated symbolic notations (+ - = etc.).

You are therefore constrained to believe that 2+2=4, 9x3=27, etc. You have no choice in the matter, no free will whatsoever.

If you disagree with one of these arithmetical derivations from number theory and logic, you will be regarded as no longer fully sane. Moreover, you will have a difficult time getting a job as an accountant, unless you work for the government.

What to do if your perceptions contradict logic? (This is a question that UFO abductees have had to deal with.) Suppose that you go to a chicken store and buy 3 boxes of 9 chickens, being careful to count them before returning them to your previously empty coop.

Next morning you count the chickens and find 28. How can you account for that?

The obvious reason is operator error. You miscounted, somehow. So you eat the 28 chickens and repeat the experiment, this time with sober friends to assist the counting, verifying that the coop was empty when you installed the birds, and help with the recount. Same results.

What do you do?

Your only solution is to disavow some of the initial principles. You can claim to find an error in number theory, or you can invent your own logic. One or the other, or both, is what followers of belief systems typically do,

Of course, this is merely an analogy, but I claim that it is absolutely applicable to the way that humans think. This is true of all of us, religionists and scientists alike.

Those who dislike the conclusions of the religion in which they were raised simply reinterpret its scriptures, or invent their own. Scientists who cannot get Big Bang theory to work out according to the rules of mathematical logic, simply invent another level of garbage (multiverse theory) under which to bury its flaws.

I cannot accept that only the insane reject the truth. The truth cannot compel anyone to accept it. God is, is a proposed statement of truth. There are many who believe this and many who don’t. Most of these would be considered sane.

As we are far afield of the topic another thread should be used to pursue this any further.

 

[greylorn]

I cannot accept that only the insane reject the truth. The truth cannot compel anyone to accept it. God is, is a proposed statement of truth. There are many who believe this and many who don’t. Most of these would be considered sane.

As we are far afield of the topic another thread should be used to pursue this any further.

You did not understand anything that I wrote, did you?

Don’t worry about pursuing this any further. You cannot.

Best regards.