Matthew 25:14-30

I'm reading through the book of Matthew right now, and a couple of days ago I read the story about the three servants. I've heard about this story since I was really little, but for some reason, it just now really opened up in meaning to me.

A master gives three servants bags of gold. "He gave one servant five bags of gold, another servant two bags of gold, and a third servant one bag of gold." (Matthew 25:15 NCV) The first servant invested his gold and reaped 5 more bags of gold. The servant with two bags of gold also doubled his gold. However, the third servant buried his bag of gold in the ground and in return reaped nothing.

God used this story to show me that our faith is like the gold. When we accept Jesus into our hearts and start on our path of Christianity, that's like God giving us His gold. We can take our new life and just live it quietly, keeping it to ourselves like the third servant. Or, we can take it like the first and second servant and invest it for our Father.

God wants us to share His gift. How selfish would it be of us to not want to share the great gift God has given us of salvation?

Jesus ends his parable by telling his disciples, "...Take the bag of gold from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags of gold. Those who have much will get more, and they will have much more than they need. But those who do not have much will have everything taken away from them." (Matthew 25: 28-29 NCV) Jesus was saying, faith becomes more abundant when it is invested into the lives of others. Because one invests their faith into the lives of others, the kingdom grows, and it return, faith also grows. But, hiding faith under a rock does not put anything into the kingdom, and in return faith is squandered and halted from growing.

Sharing and living faith out loud is not always easy in today's world. It has moments where it is frightening. But, if we never take the chance to invest our faith, what will we reap for the Lord's kingdom? Jesus did command, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19 NIV)