I usually prefer to choose a book of the Bible, most often Old Testament, and read chapter by chapter. I love seeing the hand of God in the lives of His chosen servants like David, Moses, Gideon and Daniel. But today I played a little "Bible Roulette". I do NOT recommend this method of study as a general rule but there have been times in my life when God has used it to speak to my heart.
Like today.
I opened to Matthew 20 and saw it . . .
It is the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The master hires workers in the early morning, the afternoon, the late day and the evening and pays each worker the SAME wage at the end of the work day.
Those hired early are indignant! They worked ALL DAY and received the same wage, albeit a fair and previously agreed-upon wage, as those who worked just a couple of hours.
The owner of the vineyard chastises those complainers with the remark "am I not allowed to do what I want with what belongs to me or do you begrudge my generosity?".
And I realize that my husband and I are those workers hired very late in the day! But HE has been and is still being so generous with us just because He is good and He feels like it. Not because we "deserve". We don't. All we "deserve" we have mercifully avoided by the brutal substitutionary death of God's perfect son.
And that makes me want to worship Him all the more . . . because grace begets gratefulness.
Yes, Father, you are allowed to do whatever you want with what belongs to YOU . . . and with WHOEVER belongs to you . . . because it pleases you to do it.
So in giving and taking away, in healing and not, in bounty and in want, we have no right to look over our shoulder or to the left and the right and ask why SHE gets this and HE has that.
We have only but to praise You for the provision that comes from Your hand. Your loving, guiding, cradling hand that is promised to never leave or forsake us. The value of which can not be measured.
So thank You, Father, for hiring us. Thank You for the wages. Thank You for the work.
Thank You for proving time and again that You are doing this and we need not strive.
Or worry.
Or doubt.
Or give up.
Thank You for the tangible ways in which you are carrying us. The severance, the insurance, the provision that is more than we asked or imagined. When you owe us nothing but are giving us so much.
Why?
Not because of our goodness but because of Yours. To make us humble. To remind us that not a breath is drawn apart from YOUR will. To teach us to trust even more and to never fight You for the helm.
Hired. Paid. Used. Protected. Guided.
