Key Thought

Today's Prayer

Father, give me the wisdom to know your will in my life and the patient endurance to wait on your timing. Forgive me for my foolish impatience. Through your Spirit, please develop my self-control, patience, and peace. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

Jesus traveled closer to Jerusalem. Some of the people thought that God's kingdom would come soon. Jesus knew the people thought this, so he told them this story: "A very important man was preparing to go to a country far away to be made a king. Then the man planned to return home and rule his people. So he called ten of his servants together. He gave a bag of money to each servant. The man said, 'Do business with this money until I come back.' But the people in the kingdom hated the man. So the people sent a group to follow the man to the other country. In the other country, this group said, 'We don't want that man to be our king!' "But the man became king. When he came home, he said, 'Call those servants that have my money. I want to know how much more money they earned with it.' The first servant came and said, 'Sir, I earned ten bags of money with the one bag you gave me!' The king said to the servant, 'Fine! You are a good servant. I see that I can trust you with small things. So now I will let you rule over ten of my cities!' The second servant said, 'Sir, with your one bag of money I earned five bags!' The king said to this servant, 'You can rule over five cities!' Then another servant came in. The servant said to the king, 'Sir, here is your bag of money. I wrapped it in a piece of cloth and hid it. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You even take money that you didn't earn and gather food that you didn't grow!' Then the king said to the servant, 'You bad servant! I will use your own words to condemn you. You said that I am a hard man. You said that I even take money that I didn't earn and gather food that I didn't grow. If that is true, you should have put my money in the bank. Then, when I came back, my money would have earned some interest.' Then the king said to the men that were watching, 'Take the bag of money away from this servant and give it to the servant that earned ten bags of money.' The men said to the king, 'But sir, that servantalready has ten bags of money!' The king said, 'The person that uses what he has will get more. But the person that does not use what he has will have everything taken away from him. Now where are my enemies? Where are the people that did not want me to be king? Bring my enemies here and kill them. I will watch them die!'"

Related Scripture Readings

But the Spirit gives love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law that can say these things are wrong.

that God will strengthen you with his own great power; that God will strengthen you, so that you will be patient and not quit when troubles come. Then you will be happy and give thanks to the Father. He has made you able to have the things he prepared for you. He has prepared these things for all his people who live in the light (good).

The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. God doesn't want any person to be lost. God wants every person to change his heart and stop sinning. But the Day when the Lord comes again will be a surprise like a thief. The sky will disappear with a loud noise. All the things in the sky will be destroyed with fire. And the earth and everything in it will be burned.