Today’s writing is on Matthew 1 & 2.
With the conclusion of the book of Psalms yesterday, for the remainder of the year, our Bible Journal’s going to be shifting on covering the entirety of the New Testament. Please pray alongside us that our Father God would empower us and fill us with His Holy Spirit throughout this new series, so that we may continue bringing glory to Him.
With a change in series, and the halfway point for 2021 coming up shortly, it feels like a good moment for self-reflection. What has this year looked like for you? Has it felt like forever at this point, as if time has crawled to a standstill? Maybe you’re like me, and this last half-year has flown by in what feels like a blink. What has your walk with Christ looked like in that time? In what ways did you do well, and in what ways did you make mistakes to learn from? How did you navigate the difficulties that life has brought you in that time, and How did you call upon God for help through them when you needed Him? And how have you furthered your relationship with Christ, and come to grow closer to Him?
I read these two chapters of Matthew and see the cumulative effects of many people whose walks with God differ wildly. Some of these people in Christ’s genealogy were on fire for Him; some were very wicked people. Some worked towards building God’s kingdom out of hard work & reverence; for others, God used their mistakes and sins to create a way to bring glory to Him and demonstrate His true influence over man. God is working His plan for this world, whether we’re helping make a way for Him or just getting in the way. Whether it’s by doing good works to build up His kingdom, or displaying His ability to heal & change us, or simply acting as a vessel for His righteous wrath to display its power. And on day, we’ll all have to stand in front of the Lord and answer whether we helped Him or just got in His way. But what a blessing this can: even the most troubled, broken person can be of worth to God and be a part of His plan to redeem this world! How have your contributions to God’s kingdom reflected your gratitude towards Him in this way? Have your words & actions showcased the desire of someone who wants to serve the living God who has rescued them?
For example, I see Joseph as portrayed in these first two chapters of Matthew as a great example of someone willing to make difficult decisions in order to follow God’s will for him and further His works. Joseph listened to God when commanded, even though it meant making some incredibly counter-cultural choices that could not be easy to make. No one in that day would have blamed him for walking away from an unfaithful spouse-to-be and washing his hands of the situation. But when God spoke, Joseph listened and obeyed – even when the results put his life in grave danger due to King Herod’s self-conscious fear. What greater example for acting on faith could we ask for than this: to place your trust in God’s providence over your own life. In a time when God asks us to move in radically counter-cultural ways to display His love & changing grace, have you made bold decisions & actions to do what is right by Him rather than what is easy or comfortable for you?
Above all, this passage brings me great joy and makes me thankful for the gift of a savior in Jesus. I am amazed that God would do all that he has & suffer through the death of His perfect son so that we would be able to so readily afford life with Him. I am overjoyed that Jesus, fully God, would walk among us in order to truly know the plight of man as we do, so readily die on our behalf in our rightful place, and to be our perfect example on our own walk of life. I pray this sense of thankfulness and wonder would never escape us, that we would continue to hold this fearful reverence of our God that He truly deserves. I pray it would motivate each of us to better serve God every day, and desperately want to contribute to His kingdom with all we have.