The landowner was looking for people to work in his vineyard. He went to look for workers and he found a man standing in a marketplace doing nothing. He asked him whether or not he wants to work for his vineyard. That man agreed and he will be paid with a certain amount of salary. The landowner then went around to look for more workers and he found workers who are not being hired by anyone. They just standing around and do nothing. The landowner also invited them to come to work for his vineyard.

Now, it’s a payday, the man who got hired first expected to get paid more than other workers because he was being hired FIRST! He believed that he has a full right to receive more pay than other workers. Unexpectedly, the landowner paid salary to those who got hired last first and paid to a man who got hired first last. They all got paid the same amount. A man who got hired first wasn’t happy. He expressed that he should get paid first and get paid more than other workers because he worked longer hours and because he was the first. He expresssed “How can the landowner made me equal to other workers who came last?!?”

The landowner, however, believed that what he did was fair. He told all of his workers that “Don’t I have the right to do with my money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

The story above is taken from Matthew 20:1-16. Now, put yourself in a man who get hired first shoes. Would you be happy to get paid the same as other workers, eventhough, you worked longer than them? I would be complanning to my boss for sure for I deserve to get paid more than them, if I worked longer than my colleagues. Not just he got paid the same amount, but he was the last person who got paid! In my company, I am always looking forward to Thursday of each week for it is our pay day. Imagine, if my boss come to me and say “Jimmie, I know you have been working really hard but I will have to pay you next Thursday, I would like to pay other people first” Man … if that happened to me, I would be furious!

In the story, God is the landowner and workers are us. He has called us to be in His service because we were standing around and doing NOTHING. We all were useless and insignificant before He called us. It is the greatest privillage ever to be used by the King of Kings.

I have been walking with the Lord and been in His service for 7 years, I have been seeing God bless many ones who come to know God after me, who come into God’s service after me. I have seen God’s promotion and provision upon their lives. I see how God use them mightily in their talents and gifthings. I could understand that man’s feeling. I was disappointed with God. Why why God doesn’t use me like how He use other people. But today God is asking me, “Jimmie, don’t I have the right to do with my money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15)

I was envious. My attitudes failed before God. It’s called PRIDE. Pride in thinking that I deserve this and that from God. Pride in thinking that I deserve to be the first for God for I come first. Pride in thinking that God must use me in this way today right now in my timing. I came to realized how immature I am in my thoughts and attitude before God. But God has brought me to repentance as I acknowledge His sovereignty. I don’t have a right to say to the Potter – “HEY dude! Mould me this way otherwise I will not be your pot”.
Brother Yun said in his The Heavenly Man book “If God continues to use me for His service, Praise God ! But if one day God stops using me, Praise God too! For He is God. This quote sums up everything that I want to share.

“ God, I praise You that I have come this far and I still have a long way to go. You have been using me in the past 7 years and I will continue to have a relationship with You. I need Your humility in my heart again. Use me in Your way but my way and let me consider other people better than myself, God”