The Life Acknowledged by God
(Matthew 25:19-23)

Looking back upon this year, everything has been in the grace of God. With this year coming to an end, we should look back on our life to see whether we have lived as a good servant of God or not. Today’s scripture reading is the parable of the talents, letting us know that someday there will be the day of settlement of our life before the Lord. To be praised as a good servant, we should do our best efforts in every moment.

1. "Well done!"
A man was going on a journey and gave his three servants five talents, two talents and one talent respectively. The man with five talents and the man with two talents were industrious with the money entrusted to them, doubled it. They were praised as a good servant from their master. "His master replied, 'Well done'" (Mt. 25:21, 23). Because they made profits to meet the will of their master who wanted them to make profits from what they had given. The life acknowledged by God is to do God’s will. Therefore, we should seek for the will of God first and then we should live a life to please God.

2. "Good and"
To live a life praised by God, we should resemble the personality of Jesus. The verses 21 and 23 say, "good and". The master called his servants who made profits as ‘good servants’. The heart of Jesus is good. Jesus healed the demon-possessed souls, fed the hungry, made a dead man alive and did good jobs. Also, the heart of Jesus is humble and gentle because Jesus is the same as God but lowered Himself to become a human to save us by sacrificing Himself on the cross. Being humble is lowering ourselves. We should resemble theses characteristics of Jesus to become a good servant who is praised by the Lord.

3. "Faithful servant!"
To live an acknowledged life by God, we should be faithful. The verse 21 and 23 say, "faithful servant!" The master called his servants who made doubled profits as ‘faithful servants’. God is not interested how much we have but ‘how we used the talents’, ‘how we do our best efforts’ and ‘how much we are faithful’. When Jesus comes again, our life will be settled accounts before the Lord. Until the day comes, we should do our best efforts to dedicate on what we are given from the Lord in order to be praised as a good and faithful servant by the Lord.