By David ReayTuesday 14 Feb 2017LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Matthew 25:14-21
14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.
16 “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. 17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.
19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’
21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’ (NLT)
So often we can see obeying Jesus in terms of doing notable things. Costly sacrifices, headline-making social action, mass evangelism. All these are wonderful examples of Christian obedience, but most obedience is much more mundane, much less likely to get noticed.
Jesus’ parable reminds us that each of us has varying abilities and we are called to account for what we have, not for what we don’t have. It is dangerous to look at other well-known and extremely talented Christians and concluding we don’t measure up. But it is a false comparison. Let’s face it, some of us are better than others at some things. God has not made us all the same.
Obedience for some is teaching great numbers of Christians at conferences. For others it is making cups of tea at an aged-care centre. For some it is running an aid agency. For others it is packing a child’s lunchbox each day. Perseverance matters more than publicity.
It was C. H. Spurgeon who said that life is to be a mosaic of minute obediences.
Blessings
David Reay