"Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?"

There's a story Jesus told that makes people uncomfortable, and honestly, it should. A landowner hires workers throughout the day. Some work twelve hours in the burning heat. Others work just one hour. At the end of the day, he pays them all the same amount. The workers who labored all day are furious. They feel cheated. They feel like the master's generosity toward the latecomers is somehow an insult to them.

And here's the master's response: "Is your eye evil because I am generous?"

That question cuts to the heart of something we all struggle with. The first workers valued the money more than the mercy. They walked in works, measuring everything by what they deserved, what they earned, what was owed to them. The last workers? They simply walked in the acceptance of grace. They didn't deserve a full day's wage. They knew it. And that's what made the generosity so stunning.

Here's the uncomfortable truth...we profess grace all the time. We sing about grace. We quote verses about grace. We say we believe we're saved by grace through faith, not by works. But then we turn around and live like servants instead of sons. We work for what we can get instead of resting in what we've been given.

Let me get specific because this hits all of us somewhere. 

• You profess that God has blessed you financially, but your heart only feels secure when you're working endlessly to maintain it. 
• You profess that Christ is all you need for fulfillment, but you're chasing from one experience to the next, revival to conference to retreat, trying to feel something. 
• You profess contentment in your relationships, but you're exhausting yourself trying to please everyone so they won't reject you. 
• You profess that your identity is in Christ, but you're measuring your worth by your child's success or your career achievements or how many people know your name.

Can I just say this...
A servant works for what he can get.
A son rests in what he's been given. 
And right now, many of us are living like servants in the Father's house instead of sons and daughters at the Father's table.

The master in the parable asked, "Is it not permitted for me to do whatever I want with what is mine?" That's a grace statement. That's the Father saying, "I get to be generous. I get to give you what you don't deserve. And you don't get to measure my love by comparing your blessing to someone else's." 
Sheesh!! Read that again!

Tomorrow, we'll dive into why comparison is so toxic and what it reveals about whether we're chasing approval or resting in acceptance.

Identify one thing you're working to earn from God (security, acceptance, success, peace) and practice thanking Him today that it's already yours in Christ. Stop working for it. Just receive it.