EXPAND TO READ: MATTHEW 15 (HCSB)
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 8-9, 11, 18): I am not proud to admit that I have a dirty mouth when it comes to how I speak and I often say things that I regret after the fact. When I get into the “heat of the moment” I tend to say things that I wouldn’t normally say which are typically hurtful towards those I am speaking to. A lot of this has to do with my upbringing as a child, but also with the 20+ years I served in the military. I’ve allowed myself to take on the characteristics and speaking styles of those around me at different points in my life instead of truly living in the way You want me to live in. Please forgive me for this, Father. Forgive me for my profanities, forgive me for my evil words towards others, and forgive me for often saying things I don’t intend to say due to speaking too quickly without thinking first. Help me to be better as I mature in my faith and continue to build this relationship with You. Purge these negative words from my vocabulary so that I may be a better representation of You to the world.
PROMISE (verse 28): A woman came up to Jesus several times asking for Him to purge the demon from her daughter. He didn’t respond at first, probably as a test of her faith if I had to guess. When He did respond, however, she responded back in a way that truly revealed her faith to all, which gave Him what He needed to respond with “your faith is great, so let it be done for you as you want.” This essentially meant that her daughter would be healed from this demon as she requested. The promise that I see here is that if we are strong and consistent in our faith, then the things we truly yearn for in this life will be granted to us. This doesn’t mean that if I am strong in my faith that You will grant me riches, because that is not how You operate. It means that if I am truly strong in my faith, then I am aligned with Your will for my life and I will pursue the things that make You happy. This includes, in this situation, the healing of my children if needed. Thank You for this example and promise, Father, as well as showing that sometimes promises will also grant immediate fulfillment as it was here for the lady’s daughter.
ATTITUDE (verse 8, 18-19): I do struggle with my heart quite a bit. I have allowed a lot of wounds to fester and scar up over my lifetime instead of allowing You to heal me fully and truly since coming to faith. There is so much that I took on my shoulders and into my heart from before coming to faith and even since coming to faith that I have struggled with, which has slowly but surely turned me into a person I was not proud of. Thankfully, through my men’s ministry and other Godly men, You have helped me to begin the healing process and releasing things to You. Although I do still struggle with some of these things at times, I know that You are always there with me and that I am better than I once was. Please continue to work in me, Father, so that I can live this life with an attitude of freedom and restoration from my past in order to live fully for You moving forward!
COMMAND (verse 11): I find this verse, along with a few others in this chapter on the same topic, as a command to Your followers. You say that it is not what goes into our mouth which defiles us, but what comes out of our mouth. I see two commands in this one statement. The first is the command that what we eat doesn’t defile us, so we need to stop making rules about the things we eat being “unclean” or something like that. The second command is concerning what we speak. You are stating that what we speak can actually be a defiling act, so we must be cautious about the words we use and say. I know I struggle with the second command for sure, so I ask for Your help in getting me to where I need to be on this topic. Help me to be better at speaking in a way that glorifies You at all times, Father.
EXAMPLE (verses 1-9): Anytime Jesus was tested by those who were not truly committed followers, He seemed to never hold back. The Pharisees approached Him with a question about His disciples and why he allows them to break traditions by eating without washing their hands, essentially defiling the food that goes into their mouths. He quickly responded with an almost identical question back to them asking why do they break God’s commandments because of their worldly traditions? He called them hypocrites because they are trying to say other’s are acting in a defiling manner against God, when they themselves are doing so as well. We can’t live by God’s rules AND man’s rules in this life when they contradict each other. I must always choose God over man so that I do not live in a hypocritical way like the Pharisees were living.
*DAILY NOTE: Right from the start of today’s conversation, You showed me that Jesus does not hold back any punches in a sense. Anytime the Pharisees tried to catch Him, He was quickly able to turn things around on them simply by speaking from Your truth, which they claimed to be close abiders in. I need to be better at knowing and saying Your truth in situations like this, Father, so that if I am approached by someone in a similar way as Jesus in this scripture, I can respond in a similar way to ensure that You are always glorified and praised in the words which I speak. Continue to help me become better and more knowledgeable in Your truth, Father, so that as I continue to mature in my faith I can be a messenger for You to others just as Jesus was in His walk on this earth.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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