Are you living as the last made first?
29 Jan 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Exodus 19
Exodus 20
Exodus 21
Matthew 20:1-16
So the last will be first, and the first last (Matthew 20:16).
Are you living as the last made first?
God chooses Israel for Himself not based upon her merits. Moses writes, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples” (Deuteronomy 7:7). He tells them as a result of His choice, “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). God’s favor toward Israel should produce a humble, loyal, and obedient people. Jesus’ teaching on the landowner should likewise impact us (Luke 20:1-16). He paid the workers the same pay whether they labored all day or a short time. Moreover, He shocks all the workers by paying the laborers who came last, first (Matthew 20:8).
Employment Point: Choose the rearmost to be the foremost.
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Reflections
Here, the Lord’s reward system is a totally different one. He pays the one who came in last, first and the same amount as the one who started work early in the morning. In our own human understanding, this is easily deemed as injustice. But in God’s eyes, this is grace.
I liken this parable to the prodigal son. The elder son has always been with the father and has all the while been doing work since morning till night. This was expected. However, when the prodigal son returned, the father killed the fattened calf and threw a feast. Similarly, the worker who used to be lazy and not doing anything, decided to work. It is to be rejoiced! Even though the total number of hours worked are different, we cannot compare directly one person from the other.
More often than not, the Lord’s reward system is beyond our understanding. If He truly does reward based on the world’s standard, I think we would all have failed terribly because we are all so undeserving. However, that is not who He is. He gives us loads of grace, blessings, as well as love which we never thought we will receive.
Just want to thank you Lord, for all the love You have poured over us, our cup overflows. May You guard our hearts and let us not compare with one another on who is more loved by God. We do not want to be like His disciples arguing among themselves about who is greater. It is pointless and totally missed the point of what the Lord wants us to focus on. The focus is on Him, alone.
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The Unmistakable Voice of God
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
January 29
Who are you, Lord? —Acts 26:15
Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken. It comes to you in the language you know best, not through your ears but through your circumstances.
When we have gone astray, when we have grown too sure of ourselves, God has to come in and set us right. He has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. In these moments, his voice is overwhelming. He speaks to us as he spoke to Isaiah, with a “strong hand,” revealing to us the depths of our ignorance (Isaiah 8:11). He tells us that we’ve been serving Jesus in a spirit that is not his, pushing his message in the spirit of the devil. The words we’ve been speaking might have soundedright, but our spirit was that of the enemy: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).
There is no escape when our Lord speaks. I must take his rebuke to heart: “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of” (Luke 9:55 kjv). Have I been persecuting Jesus by a zealous determination to serve him in my own way? To do God’s work in the Spirit of Jesus is to have the humble and gentle Spirit kindled inside me. If instead I am filled with self-satisfaction or a grim sense of having “done my duty,” I know that in fact I have not done it. We imagine that anything unpleasant is our duty! Is that at all like the Spirit of the Lord? “I delight to do thy will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8 kjv).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
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Reflections
“The words we’ve been speaking might have sounded right, but our spirit was that of the enemy” - this reminds me of what Peter had spoken to Jesus, saying “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” when Jesus told his disciples that he would be captured and killed. Peter's reaction stemmed from a misunderstanding of Jesus's mission, as he focused on earthly, human concerns rather than divine purpose, leading to Jesus calling him "Satan" for being a stumbling block.
What Peter did was not a wrong thing per se, trying to prevent evil from touching his teacher but we do know in the bible this is meant to be. However, as people living in this world, I think there is a high chance that we are mostly like Peter. We tell the Lord “No! This evil thing shall not happen!” But do we really understand His plans or have we seek Him to know His will instead of proceeding to take action based on our own deduction? Can our deductions or assumptions be wrong? Definitely! So what makes us so sure that we are doing something right?
Someone or rather two different persons reminded me that it is important to recognise and not have a saviour’s mentality. There is only one Saviour and that is Christ Jesus. So I guess it is important to take pauses and not take actions too fast. Listen more.. and seek counsel from Him.
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” - this is yet another key principle that we need time to reflect upon. Are all our actions, speech and thoughts done out of love? This is pretty straightforward in a way. But if we put the two concepts together, it becomes confusing.
Peter said that out of love of Jesus but Jesus rebuked him for his focus on human concerns. Oswald helped us answer this question with the following “Have I been persecuting Jesus by a zealous determination to serve him in my own way? To do God’s work in the Spirit of Jesus is to have the humble and gentle Spirit kindled inside me.” I think this is definitely a learned process of humbling ourselves and learning from Him. It takes time and I am sure we will get better. Help us Lord, to seek You, to pause and wait for You, as You guide us to hear You ever so clearly that we will never doubt Your will. Help us also to surrender all into Your hands so that Your will be done.
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