EXPAND TO READ: MATTHEW 11 (HCSB)
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verses 18-19): I have often lived my life, even since coming to faith, seeing/finding the negative aspects of someone instead of standing amazed at the positives in them. Just as You stated here, John was not drinking alcohol, but they said he had a demon. Jesus was drinking, although not to the point of drunkenness with tax collectors and sinners, and they call him a glutton and a drunkard. Many of them did not look at the positives in Him or John and dwell on those. Instead, they looked at what society at the time would deem as spiritual impurity, even if it was a false claim, and they would focus on that as their depiction of them. I have also done this in my life, Father. Please forgive me for my immaturity in how I look at others at times. Forgive me for often looking at something they do that maybe I disagree with for various reasons and labelling them as a “bad” person in a sense. I have a lot of mistakes in my own life, so who am I to judge others for anything they do? Why do I feel the need to put labels on some people just because they are living their lives differently than I am? You didn’t call us to all be the same exact duplicate of each other or even a replica of Jesus. You called us to walk our own path according to the gifts You’ve blessed us with and according to Your will for our lives. Help me to be better at realizing this on a daily basis and living this way throughout my life, Father.
PROMISE (verse 27b): I find the latter part of this verse to be a very revealing promise to all believers. Jesus tells the crowd that nobody truly knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him. This promise essentially is saying that our path to the Father is through Jesus and only for those whom Jesus reveals Him to. I thank You for being in my life and in my heart, Jesus. I thank You for the great sacrifices You made for me, but also for placing in me the Holy Spirit who reveals so much to me as I am ready and even sometimes when I don’t feel I’m ready for it. Thank You for this promise and for fulfilling this promise in my life, Jesus!
ATTITUDE (verse 20): This verse is a rather difficult one to truly embrace. Jesus began to denounce many of the towns where most of the miracles had been performed, not because they were sinners or anything like that, but because they failed to do any repentance after being direct witness to those miracles. I couldn’t even imagine living during the times of Jesus and seeing with my own eyes Him performing miracles on others or even myself in His flesh! WOW! Yet many people chose to continue living their lives as they were, with no repentance. I had been like this for quite some time until getting serious about my relationship with You, Father. Help me to continue to be better about walking in a consistent and automatic attitude of repentance, Father. Help me to truly know what it means to live in a constant attitude of repentance, Father, because I am not perfect, and I know I will continue to make mistakes here-and-there. My hope is that those mistakes become smaller and less frequent as I continue to mature in my faith.
COMMAND (verse 29): Your command here is actually quite a simple one to read, yet an extremely difficult one to truly take action on for me personally at times. Your command is to take up Your yoke and learn from You. I often live in this world instead of living in Your truth. I often live in my flesh instead of living in this Spirit You have blessed me with. How often have I made mistakes out of selfishness or just simply from doing what the world would have me do? How often have I made mistakes by leaning on my flesh instead of leaning on the Spirit? Help me to be better at taking on Your yoke, Jesus, and learning from You instead of from this world.
EXAMPLE (verses 28-30): I love the words You speak to these people here. You aren’t calling the perfect or even the “somewhat” righteous. You are calling all who are weary and burdened. You are calling the broken. You are calling all those who are lost. You are telling them that Your yoke and Your burden is far easier and lighter to bear than what we put on ourselves from our flesh and the world. Help me to be better at living under Your yoke and Your burden instead of my own, Father, so that I can have a bit more hop in my Spiritual walk than I currently do.
*DAILY NOTE: Matthew just seems to be speaking to me quite a bit as of late. I’ve read the book of Matthew before, but for whatever reason I guess I wasn’t ready for the lessons in the past. Thank You for opening my eyes and heart and revealing to me the lessons today, Father, on repentance, on spiritual maturity, on the lessons You have to offer me, and on the burdens being lifted off my shoulders if I truly embrace the life You want me to live. Help me to be a better Christ-follower in this life, Father. Help me to be a better representation of You to others. Help me to truly be a witness for You in this world as You have called me to be in Acts 1:8 and many other places in Your word. Help me to truly embrace and live in Your truth and not my own, not the world’s, not the enemy’s, and not my own flesh.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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