Are you experiencing depression because you feel your mates are excelling better than you are? Are you worried because those you feel you are better than or those that once depended on you are now doing better than you? Be glad you found this message because in a moment you shall experience a dramatic transformation!
Life naturally presents us with the realities of groups, stages, circles, age grades, peers, classmates, sets, etc, which sometimes leaves us with the false notion of thinking that members of a particular group or age grade or set have the same timelines and destiny or should be evaluated by same standards. This mode of thinking have caused many depressions, suicides, low self-esteem, poor prayer life and faithlessness!
If you wish to experience divine energy that will transform you, read slowly then to know what God has to say about your destiny timeline:
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Matthew 20:1-16
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at DAYBREAK to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day and sent them to his vineyard. Going out at about the THIRD HOUR he saw others standing idle in the market place and said to them, “You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage.” So they went. At about the SIXTH HOUR and again at about the NINTH HOUR, he went out and did the same. Then at about the ELEVENTH HOUR he went out and found more men standing around, and he said to them, “Why have you been standing here idle all day?” “Because no one has hired us” they answered. He said to them, “You go into my vineyard too.” In the EVENING, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first.” So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each. When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each. They took it but grumbled at the landowner. “The men who came last,” they said “have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us…He answered one of them and said, “My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius? Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you. Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because I am generous?”
POINTS FOR REFLECTION
It will interest you to know that this parable by Jesus has something to reveal about PRAYER and it’s a connection to one’s DESTINY. Just pay attention and avoid distraction
1. Pay attention to the Biblical symbolisms: The landowner is God. He owns the earth everything in it for the scripture says: the Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples (Ps.24:1).
2. The labourers are you and I. The labourers came in groups or sets and at different hours, others first and some others last but they all received same payment, none was cheated. God cheats no one! So why complain you are less favoured or blessed? This is the irony of life: neither the rich nor poor is less favoured by God! If you claim you are a man or woman of faith then it presupposes you know the God you serve. You should know that God is free and does whatever He wills (Ps. 115:3; 135:6). You should know that God’s ways are not ours, His thoughts are not ours either. If you know this, change every disordered thought of thinking that God is not fair to you. If you’re still in doubt hear the Lord say in (Isaiah 55:6-9)
Seek the Lord while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near. Let the wicked man abandon his way, the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him, to our God who is rich in forgiving; for my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways, not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks. Yes, the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.
3. Now consider the Time (hours) when these labourers were called to work. The Time here should not be reduced only to some literal understanding of time! It signifies both Divine Time and Human Destiny Timeline!
What is Divine Time?
4. Simply it is God’s time. Time in this sense is understood as spiritual time and takes on the dimension of Kairos rather than Chronos: a favourable time, an hour of grace and salvation and not a mathematical calculation!
The parable tells us that the “job appointment” started at DAYBREAK and continued at the THIRD HOUR, SIXTH HOUR, NINTH HOUR, and ELEVENTH HOUR and Payment was made in the EVENING.
These Hours corresponds to the hours of Christ’s Condemnation, Crucifixion, Death and Burial. They make present to us these mysteries and connect us to what Jesus achieved for us. These are hours of grace, favours, blessings and mercy and are best hours of connecting in Prayer to God who surprises us with appointments. These are hours for Set-Time prayers. These are hours for deliverance and healing, and for praying for whatever needs of our heart!
Remember it was at these hours when the workers relapsed into idleness thinking that no one will hire them, that help suddenly came and they were employed!
Human Destiny/ Timeline.
5. We all have different timelines or destiny, and as such, it is useless comparing yourself with others! This reality is expressed in the fact that we all are not born on the same day and time. Even twins are not born at the same time. Our timelines are different and God respects it. Some persons may have their “destiny events” playing out early in the morning while others later in the day or at the eleventh hour. But they shall all receive what is due to them!
So why disturb yourself because your ‘mates’ are experiencing the manifestation of their destiny mandates while you are yet to or have to wait long to receive yours? As you wait for your appointment, don’t relapse into idleness, rather do something and learn something new. Remember that even though the labourers were idle, the Bible says they were found “outside”- in the market place or around the neighbourhood where the landowner found them- they were not “inside” lying idlely on their beds! God’s help locates those who are ready to work hence the scripture says in Psalm 128:2: God blesses the labour of our hands not our idleness! No wonder the master asked them: why standing here idle all day? Are you idle, doing nothing because you have been jobless or tired of job hunting? Get up now! You have a mandate from God to be fruitful and dominate (Gen.1:28). Connect to that mandate by doing something useful now, learn something new and rise from your slumber!
TASK: Pause for a while and make an introspection into your life. Look at those things you love doing without the stress that gives you joy. Do you think everyone can do it? No, not everyone can, that’s why it’s special! Develop it by focusing your attention to it. Learn from others who share your dreams and grow to bring out the best in you. Pray Psalm 128 now and ask the Lord to bless your labours. He surely will. God bless you. Amen.
▪︎Fr. SimOne Madu, OSJ
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