Friday 14 Dec 2012

Friday Reading: Matthew 20:1-16

Key Verse: Matthew 20:15
15  Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

Devotion:
There are probably times when you read through a story like this in your bible and begin to wonder just how it applies in our lives; and sometimes we have to think a bit outside our normal thought patterns in order to find out what God would have us understand from His Word. We like to think that we understand God’s ways of righteousness to a certain extent and want to believe that we can figure out what he would do when faced with a problem.

But then many times we just have to accept that God knows best and that His ways are far beyond anything we can understand. When it comes down to the simplicity of a story like this then we really do have to take another look at what we understand about God and His ways. Just as the householder was the one in charge and did not have to answer to anyone else, God is in charge and certainly does not have to answer to anyone else!

The householder was the one who made agreements with each of the individuals and he was the one who was going to make sure that he kept each of those agreements; it was not up to other people to judge other peoples agreements because they were not privy to those agreements. When we see how God treats other people we can often get upset because we may not agree with those ways – but it is not up to us because we do not know God’s ways!

God alone has infinite understanding and we are the ones who continue to have to learn things every step of the way. Just as each group of hired servants were learning something new about how God wants to treat us, we need to take note of the lengths that God goes to in order to find out how special He is toward us. We have this false impression that each of us has got to be treated in exactly the same way; but we are very different people each demanding different treatments and ways. God is the one who knows what we need and He is the one that will make sure that we do get what He thinks we deserve and not what anyone else says we should!

Points to Ponder:
Working for God can be hard…

Are you ready to toughen up for God?