Colossians 3, 24 -25 says,’’ Remember that the Lord will give you as a reward what He has kept for His people. For Christ is the real Master you serve. ‘’ God promises to reward us for how we serve Him on earth. Instead of falling into discouragement or depression, we should stick tightly to the promise that God will reward us for our trials and afflictions’’.
A reward is something of value given in return for an act. Just as the parable of the land owner communicated. In this parable, Jesus uses wages to communicate a message about work and wages but in actual fact, what God gives is reward and not wages. Therefore, whenever we work, we should do it heartily for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord we will receive the reward of the inheritance, since It is Christ that we serve.
l find the parable of the land owner, who went out each time to invite people to his vineyard, representing the opportunity that Gods presents to us daily for repentance. He invites us always to come back to Him. This can come through experiencing hard situations, encouragement and advice and reflections etc. And, our response to these daily calling is not without a reward. God can surprise us like the land owner surprised those who worked in his vineyard. We see those who started work in the vineyard very early in the morning receive the same wages with those who joined at the middle of the day and those who came towards the end of day. It means that God can surprise us with His blessings and favours in the way that we would never imagine.
Furthermore, Jesus uses this parable to communicate God’s generosity, kindness and love .Besides, God gives rewards freely not because we merit them but He does that out of the abundance of His mercy and grace. Therefore, it will be wrong for us to think that God is supposed to do this or that for us. God is not owing anybody so we should not think that because we have fasted and prayed for two weeks or more, God must obey and give us whatever we asked for. The parable of the Land owner simply shows that God answers and works the way He chooses and not according to our way.
Thus,, the key point here is for us to take our work seriously and respond to opportunities as they come to us because God’s reward comes like a surprise package. So, let that be the fuel to propel us into a deeper trust and dependence on God as we serve him. Therefore, there is no need for us to lose hope, anything can happen at any time.
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