THE OVERWHELMING GENEROSITY OF GOD

Jesus told about a landowner who hired day laborers to work in his fields and paid them all a day's wage, in spite of the fact that he had hired workers all day long – some right up until the last hour. To make it doubly hard on the ones who worked all day, he made them watch everyone else get paid first. Well, you can imagine there was a good deal of grumbling from this group over those who worked only an hour or two getting the same thing they got laboring under the hot sun all day. To which the landowner replied: Wait a minute. Didn't I pay you what we agreed upon? If I want to be generous to these others, what is that to you? Take your money and go. (Matthew 20:1-16)

Here's what I love about this parable: slipping away from there with a day's pay in your pocket for an hour's work. You're wondering if someone made a mistake and paid you too much, but you're reluctant to point it out to anyone for fear it was a mistake and you'll have to give most of it back. But then you hear that the generosity of the employer was the reason your pocket is full, and you can't believe your good fortune.

This is precisely what it feels like to be a Christian. You didn't contract for this righteousness. You didn't labor to get into this family. You didn't study hard and read your Bible every day and go to church every Sunday and gain extra credit for being on the worship committee in order to ensure your place in Heaven. You are in this for one reason and one reason alone – the overwhelming generosity of God.

Grace is what makes you keep checking your pocket to make sure your life with God is still there. Worship is what happens when you find out it is. In fact, what you receive is so overwhelmingly generous that you will probably need a tote bag to carry it all!

-- John Fisher in The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional


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