Having entrusted his servants with some money, the king (having received

his title) now returns home and asks for an account. The report: the first

two have put what was entrusted to them to work, whilst the third servant

hid the money and did nothing with it at all. The result: the king praises

the first two servants for their faithfulness and rewards them by sharing

his rule over other cities (we’ll look at the third servant and the

judgment that falls on him in more detail tomorrow). Note that the rewards

are disproportionate to the relatively small amount that had been entrusted

to the servants and a generous response relating to the obedience that they

had demonstrated to their master.

As we await Jesus’ return - at which point we will be called to account -

how he longs for us to obediently put to work the gifts, time, and

resources that he has entrusted us! So often we can fall into three traps:

thinking that we have been entrusted with little, forgetting that what has

been entrusted is ultimately God’s, and/or reluctant to take a risk and let

go of our gifts. It’s notable that even though the first two servants

yielded phenomenal gains, they both attribute the master’s gifts as the

cause for the growth! It’s such a great demonstration of humility! Knowing

that the master would return (at any time) to call them to account on the

investment of his gifts entrusted to them, they never sought to use them

for their own purposes, but only in obedience to what the owner had

requested of them. With the same clarity of vision - that all that we have

has been entrusted to us by the returning King - so we should be motivated

to direct our whole lives for the purposes of the King and his Kingdom. AL

Questions

How can we be clear that this is not about ‘making more money’?

What are the gifts, time, and resources that God has entrusted to you? What

do you think it looks like to use them according to God’s purposes?

Ask a Christian friend how they see Kingdom fruit being yielded in your

life.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you that you have entrusted us with so much for your

Kingdom purposes! Please help us to recognise that all we have is yours,

that you are returning to call us to account, and that you long for us to

use our lives to yield Kingdom fruit that will last forever. In Jesus’

Name, Amen.