February 3: Mark 12:1-12

Key Verse: Mark 12:7
But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’

Devotion:
We can look at these verses and be appalled at the way the people renting the vineyard are behaving, but when we look closely into our lives, we must draw parallels with our lives and God. The farmers who came to look after the vineyard may well have been doing a very good job at looking after the crops and the land, but what they were doing to the owner was simply not right!

God has asked us to live a life on this earth and has given us everything we need to live our lives – but what are we doing with those lives? Are we taking good care of them? Are we looking after them with a long term vision or with a short term goal to get the most out of them we can while we live? Too many people look at life as being a very limited resource and do what they like to either enjoy life or to build up riches so they can enjoy their later years in life…

But what is going to happen when God sends a visitor to us to see how we are doing and to ask us to show Him some of the fruit we should be growing? Are we going to be like these farmers and send God’s servants away or even kill them? Are we going to listen to who they are and show them the respect they are due? Are we going to plot against God just as these farmers plotted against the vineyard owner?

I think many of us would try and say we would do the right thing and we would show God’s servants due respect… but when we go into the world and work for God, we see very quickly how many people do not have any respect for us and for God. People do compare very well with the farmers in this passage! That does not give us the right to act like them or to live our lives our own ways. We have a duty to God to listen to Him and live according to His wishes. He is going to give us space to do our own thing – but what we do should be in line with what He planned for in the beginning!

Points to Ponder:
Do you live life to the full?

Where is God in your life?