HOW DO YOU KNOW THE LORD TO BE?
MATTHEW 25:24-25
MATTHEW 25:24-25 NKJ
24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
These verses are taken from the parable of the talents. The Lord gave his 3 servants a fixed amount of talents. The talents were the money of that day, and the amount was significant. By modern metrics, we are not talking 5, 3, and 1 dollar, but hundreds of thousands of dollars even for the servant who received the one talent.
The other two servants invested their money and doubled it. The master was pleased and gave them even more responsibility.
But the one servant did not do well at all. He dug a hole and buried the money. No interest, no return, just wasted opportunity. Oh, and the Lord was not happy at all.
The important part of this particular passage is why. Why did the servant bury the money? The answer is found in his response to his lord. I knew you to be a hard man. This servant accused his lord of being unfair and essentially a thief. Because this was how he knew his lord he was afraid. And fear reduces the willingness to take risks.
The servant thought his lord was such a hard, unreasonable man that he took the easiest path he could find. And it backfired on him. He wound up losing what he had and being thrown out of the kingdom. All because of a wrong perception of his lord.
Application
How do you know the Lord to be to you? Is He hard and unreasonable? Is He someone who steals and ruins lives? If that's how you know Him, it will produce the wrong kind of response, fear. Not the fear of the Lord, which we would call respect. But rather a fear that cripples any initiative on your part. If you think He's out to hurt your life, you certainly won't serve Him gladly. Giving to Him will be difficult, and you'll probably just do what you can to stay off His radar.
But if you know Him as good, kind, and generous, the ballgame changes. It's so much easier to trust someone who you believe cares about you. It's easier to risk if you know He will help you up, not kick you out if you don't do well.
We can know more about the Lord from His word and our time spent in communion with Him. David said taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who trusts in Him (Psalm 34:8).
Prayer
Dear Father, I believe You are good, very good. I have such respect for You, and I know You care for me.