HE hires even at 5pm...

Interesting fact about the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20)…

The landowner goes early in the morning to hire workers, and around 9am to hire more workers, again at 3pm and at 5pm… and he pays the same wage to all the workers despite the time they were hired.

Early in the morning he would have hired the strong, the skilled, the best workers and probably around 9am.  But at 3pm and at 5pm?  Who would be hanging around for work at 5pm except the weak, the unskilled, those no one else wanted, in short, the losers.  The landowner, not only hires them, but pays them the same wage he promised those he hired early in the morning. 

This is God’s salvation, HIS mercy, HIS love… to the greatest and the smallest, to the strongest and to the weakest, to the saints and the sinners.  We are the men and women HE comes for if we dare to hang around till 5pm.   

(Inspired by Max Lucado’s "And The Angels were Silent")

My 24/7 Prayer

Father, I am a sinful, weak woman.  All I need is the right circumstances to fall into sin and give into my weakness.  The truth is I desire sin more than I desire you.  

But you have awakened my Spirit and it cries out for you, to be with you, to be lost in you.  So have mercy on me, and today, let your thoughts be my thoughts; your words be my words; and my body – may it be your temple where your Spirit will be pleased to dwell. 

I ask this not because I am good or holy, but because I am selfish.  For I know I can’t make it on my own; and separated from you I will be destroyed, and in turn I will destroy the ones I love most.  I don’t deserve your love or your mercy, but I know you will love me anyway – for EVERYONE who calls upon the Lord will be saved.  So I call upon your name not to be saved from an enemy out there, but to be saved from myself.