back to basic...

Matthew 20:12-15

¹² 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

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

Yes... God's grace is like that.. lately.. i have been hearing and reading a lot about people who thinks that they have done soooo much but have received nothing in return...about people who feels like the world never treats them the way the it should be... about how the world don't give them the rewards that they should be getting...

well... its kinda the same as the first hour worker isn't it?

We often thinks that we DESERVE things...

we desreve this because we have done that...

but let's think deeply for a moment... do we REALLY deserve anything? learn from this story about God's worker... how would the last hour worker feel knowing that he, not only got a day's wage to feed his family, but also the same wage as the worker who worked since the morning.. how grateful would he feels?

now how many of us do that? how many of us thinks that we are the last hour worker? how many of us, instead of being angry for not getting what we thinks we deserve, we be grateful for what we already receive eventhough we haven't done anything to deserve them.. being grateful for the ABUNDANCE of blessings that we already have... that is ALWAYS OVERFLOWING and keeps on flowing like a river that never goes dry!!

many people knows about this, about the overflowing abundance of God grace... many people says "YES" to this and agrees to it... but not many truly understands and accepts God's generosity and be grateful for it...

a quote from the book Transforming Grace

As the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, God has the right to require perfect obedience and faithful service from all of us without in the least obligating Himself. We owe Him such obedience and service. If we were to perfectly obey every command God has given and faithfully perform every duty- which, of course, we never do- we still could only say, "I have merely done my duty". We cannot obligate God in any way.

God Himself asserted His freedom from any obligation when He said to Job, "WHO HAS A CLAIM AGAINST ME THAT I MUST PAY? EVERYTHING UNDER HEAVEN BELONGS TO ME" (Job 41:11) . God was not stating a mere abstract, theological principle. He was rebuking an attitude of "I'm not getting what i deserve," on Job's part....He had fallen from an attitude of "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised," into an attitude of "If profits a man nothing when he tries to please God" (Job 1:21, 34:9)

yes, it's true isn't it... and it will always be true... as long as we live without understanding the vast measure of God's AMAZING GRACE.... which is truly free....

the grace that says... when sins increases, grace increases all the more!!

how amazing is that grace? the grace that is not just truly free... but keeps on overflowing, and nothing that we can do, can ever take it away from us!! no one can ever steal it from us...

so next time, when we think that we deserve to be praised, we deserve something because we have done something... really2 rethink about it again... did we really do anything that deserved to be repaid? everything was God's to begin with... we OWE Him EVERYTHING... we don't deserve anything... but God still gives us everything...

1 Chronicles 29:14,16 is a good reminder- how David reconized the fact when the leaders of Israel gave so generously for the building of the Temple. In his prayer of praise to God he said:

But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your hand... O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes fcrom your hand, and all of it belongs to you

The person who is living under the basis of merit is like the multimilionare who always says "if i have one dollar more, it would be enough". do you want to be like that? always imposing on God to pay His "debt" eventhough He has already given you more that you deserve?