Tuesday the 20th

Matthew 20: ¹³"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? ¹⁴Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

How great of a God we serve. We do not get what we deserve by worldly standard, our measure is not judged by how much work we do. The Lord pours out his blessing on each one of us. The ones who do great things, and the ones who do little things, the ones who dedicate their lives form childhood, and the fella that just showed up yesterday, we all get the same. Let me say that again because it bears repeating, the last is just as precious as the first. In this parable the land owner goes out several times throughout the day collecting workers for his field, then at the end of the day he pays each worker the same with ones who showed up first being paid the same as the ones who showed up last. I highlight the last part of the parable because it is where I find my biggest fault. Why must we always worry about what someone else has? Why must we feel as though we are being gypped because someone got the same thing we did? So often in life I realize that I have lost sight of what is important. We serve a God who does not care when you come home, he is just overjoyed that you came home. He loves the one who just walked through the door, just as much as the one who has been there for years. That is cause for joy, not for jealously. If God treats us so well, then why do we feel compelled to treat others any differently? Don’t we all do that to some extent? We measure the people in our lives by what they have done, by how long they have been around….by how much they can do for us. It is times like these I feel humbled, I feel weak, and I feel undeserving. You see, I have to admit, that sometimes I cannot….no I guess the better way to say it is, I will not…. pour out the same love that my Lord, and God pours out on me! Each person in our lives is important, each of them deserves the same love…..but man that can be hard…. no? If you think about it, I am sure that all of the workers in the field did not even do the same amount of work! Even those that were there for the same amount of time. Surely someone always works harder, or does more. Yet God still loves the ones that worked hard, the same as the ones who worked at a slower pace. It seems very evident that the important thing to the Lord is that you show up! The Lord calls each of us to His field, HE has told us that the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few. He is not concerned with when you get there, He is overjoyed that you made it. Just as each of us has been called to His field, the people around us have been called into our lives, and us into the lives of others. May we each learn to view each other as God does…not by when they got there, or how much they do, but may we learn to pour out our love on each and every person. Imagine a place where every time a person shows up, instead of them being measured by worldly standards, there was a celebration, a place where every person had value, and worth, a place where instead of asking what do you want when they walk through the door, there is a resounding shout of thank you for showing up shouted. Imagine that place, then make it your world. Do that and you would have a tiny glimpse of what life is like with the Lord.

God Bless,

Brian Thetford

The New Covenant Church

http://www.thenewcovenantchurch.com/

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