Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.”
Matthew 20:10-12 (ESV)
Lord Jesus, I am amazed at how often I look at what others have, accomplishments they have achieved, successes that You have given them, and feel like I have gotten the short end of the stick. I look at what I perceive to be my sacrifice and commitment to the Kingdom and Your work, and then see some upshot come in and knock it out the park and be blessed in abundance, doing so with what I perceive to be little commitment, and I walk away feeling some kind of way.
Yet, I realize the error of my thinking on multiple fronts. Unlike You, I don’t see what is going on behind the scenes. I don’t see the spiritual transformation and engagement that You are having with them. I don’t see what You are doing in them and through them behind closed doors. Frankly, I don’t even see or understand what Your hidden plan is for their lives. So what looks like them just showing up is limited by my vastly scant and dreadfully imperfect perspective.
What’s more, this response is founded in an immature, works-based mindset. It believes that what I receive is conditioned upon what I do. It is purely transactional, missing one of the greatest truths of the gospel: who I am and what I have is all by Your grace! It reduces our relationship to a quid pro quo, this for that exchange. Yet, in truth I can never repay You for what You have done for me. And frankly, I don’t deserve the “denarius” that You have paid me!
So, today I ask that You forgive me for having a grumbling heart that looks at others and compares what they have to what I have. Forgive me for not fully and completely appreciating the blessings that are mine in You, the sacrifice that You made on my behalf, and the “every” of what You have promised me in Ephesians 1:3. I know that I can sound like Esau crying out to You, “Bless me too, my Father (Genesis 27:38)!” This comes from faulty feelings of exclusion. Yet, today You have reminded me that I am truly included; that I have been personally brought into Your family, a position I did not earn, bestowed blessings I can never fully comprehend. Help me to walk in that reality today, knowing who I am and Whose I am, in all ways content (Philippians 4:11), to Your glory. Amen.