God's word for me for 2011 Part 2

   "About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'" 

Matthew 20:6

The second message God gave me upon meditating on the 11th hour as stated in the passage above is "11th hour is an hour of flexibility and willingness to move as the Lord moves us." 

Much still needed to be done on the 11th hour. Not wanting his harvest to be wasted the landowner went out to hire "them" (emphasis on plural form of the pronoun) to work his vineyard during the 11th hour. This probably was not the original plan of the landowner. After all he did go out first thing in the morning to seek workers. But as the days went by he must have realized more workers were needed to work in his vineyard to gather the harvest, so as needs mount before him he went out to the marketplace in search for more workers. He did what needed to be done so his harvest won't be wasted. He hired men to work in his vineyard not just one time but four times even  up to the last working hour. Think about it, all the workers even those who work during the last hour were paid in full (denarius) according to Scriptures. What an investment! Such willingness to make necessary changes and be flexible as needs arose. Obviously the landowner in the parable was not a perfect planner for he was not able to project how much workers he needed initially. But this brings encouragement to me. As God's worker I need not know all things, I just have to be flexible and be willing to flow with what God is instructing me to do to bring in His harvest. The landowner's disposition also points me to the truth of how much the Lord values the harvest. Today in many churches the first ministry that is often let go in times of financial difficulty is missions. Many of us Christians do the same. From this parable I learn it should not be so. The harvest has to be brought in whatever the cost is.

What about those who was hired during the last hour? They could have argued...What could be done in one hour? What's the point of being employed now? You are hiring me for one hour of work? Yeah right? Notice that the promise of a denarius payment was given only to those who were hired to work in his vineyard at the beginning of the working day. In fact based on the response of those who were first hired, they expected that those who work less hours were going to be paid less than them? From this one can surmise, that was customary during that time. But without question those who were hired during the 11th hour followed the landowner and worked his vineyard for an hour. At the end of the one full hour they worked they all were paid a denarius same with those who worked at the start of the day. An insight I get from this is great reward awaits those who obey the voice of the Lord even if obedience came at the 11th hour.

We live at a time of great harvest. Even Jesus saw this almost 2000 years ago. In Matthew 9:37 "He said to his disciples ( that includes you and me), "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. This word of Jesus stands true today. The question is when the Lord of the harvest comes knocking at our doors will we be willing to obey and work in his vineyard regardless of the cost we will have to pay?

Blessings to you who read this. May His word bring encouragement to your heart and may it lead you to the path of obedience today. Amen