Parables: Week 3 - Wednesday

The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation. Psalm 145:9

During the weekend message, we were given a helpful definition for envy: “Envy is resenting God’s goodness in someone else’s life while at the same time, ignoring God’s goodness in our lives.” This definition is a stark reminder that when we are envious, we are totally blind to God’s goodness to us. It is easy for us to look around and see how God is good to the people around us. What we often fail to see is how generously good God is to us. You see, each and every day, God provides for us in numerous ways, but the question is, “Do we see His goodness to us, or refuse to recognize it?”

In Jesus’ parable found in Matthew 20 that we are studying this week, a good, compassionate landowner hired workers throughout the day who needed work. He hired people as early as first thing in the morning to as late as 5 o’clock P.M. By the end of the day, it was time for the landowner to pay his servants. Certainly surprising everyone, this landowner paid every worker the same amount, regardless of the amount of hours that they had worked. I am confident that those who had been hired later in the day celebrated, but the workers who had been hired first were not happy. Upset and feeling slighted, they complained to the landowner, who corrected their thinking (verses 11-12). He explained that what He paid them was fair and that He wanted to show kindness to all the workers He had hired (verses 13-15).

In their frustration with the landowner, the workers in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 20, who had been hired at the beginning of the day, missed one important thing: he had, in his kindness and goodness, hired them for work. He could have ignored them, but instead, he saw them and gave them a chance to earn money for themselves and their families. He had also fairly paid them what He promised. They were so caught up in their disappointment over their landowner’s kindness to the other workers that they had failed to recognize that he had been generous and fair to them. He was good to them. God, of course,  is infinitely greater than that landowner. God is good to all of His people. David said it this way in Psalm 145, “The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all His creation.” The words “everyone” and “all” are all-inclusive, including you and me. The question is, will we recognize His goodness to us specifically, or fail to recognize all the ways our Heavenly Father has been good to us?

After considering this parable from Jesus, we may be tempted to judge the early workers in this story for complaining about the landowner’s generosity and for their blindness to the landowner’s goodness toward them, but we have all been there. We have all seen God’s generosity and goodness toward others and wondered why He hasn’t given us the gifts He has given them. We have all lost sight at times of God’s goodness to us. Let’s learn a lesson today from this parable told by Jesus. Let’s choose to see and recognize God’s goodness to us, and He has been good to us.

Moving Toward Action

Your challenge today is to focus on God’s goodness. Make a list of at least 10 ways that God has been good to you. Let this list be a reminder of how good God is, specifically to you. As you go throughout your day, keep your eyes focused on His goodness to you.

Prayer Prompt: Use this prompt to guide you as you pray.

“God, as I remember the specific ways you have been good to me, I thank You for…”

Going Deeper

Psalm 145:1-21