Today's Reading
I always read today's Genesis passage with tears. The story of reconciliation is, I believe, the most powerful story of all. God sent His Son Jesus to reconcile us to Himself. Jesus' ancestor Judah took the front position so that Joseph could be reconciled to his family. I deeply hope to hear many of your responses to this today!
Our Matthew passage includes two familiar stories today. What insights do you have as you read them?
Psalms today is the rousing crescendo at the end of David's prayer. Notice how he has moved from acknowledgment of God's strength to a commitment to destroy his (David's) enemies. In the New Testament (Ephesians), we are told that our enemies are not flesh and blood, but from hell itself.
Proverbs again reminds us to walk in wisdom. We are near the end of these foundation preparations and will see them built upon with the formidable material of wise principles.
If you find your initial enthusiasm for this task waning, you are normal. I encourage you to move through this stage. Someone explained it to me long ago that we move from Desire to Discipline to Delight. It will take another week or two for the daily discipline to be cemented in your life. Hang in there!
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Sean here. We see Joseph walking God's straight path; we see Judah adhering to God's instructions (speaking for the family to Joseph); and we see God blessing the moment of the family being obedient to God. All of these principles are then plainly spoken in the Proverbs for today's reading - Prov 4: 11-13. God has a wonderful plan that is outlined for us all and it should come as no surprise that our requirement is to trust Him and walk on His straight path. That of course is usually our biggest challenge; we often see our own path as the straight one and justify making it straight according to man's wisdom, only when we look at life through the len's of God's knowledge and wisdom are we truly able to see the path before us that we are to travel. Then, in the end, we will have the glorious reconciliation that we see with Joseph and his brothers - both in this life and in the Kingdom of Heaven with our Savior.
ReplyDeleteIt's Christine. I have always loved the picture that is painted in Matthew of keeping our eyes on Jesus. Peter started out with doubt already in his voice(if it is you)and then reached out and took the hand of Jesus. As Peter felt the wind and saw the waves he was easily distracted from the midst of a miracle. He was walking on water like Jesus! Then he sank. I am reminded that my focus should be on Jesus and not the circumstances. Phillipians 4:13 (one of our families life verses) is a promise that if we draw our strength from Christ, He will give us the power to accomplish anything.
ReplyDeleteSo true Christine.
ReplyDeleteIt was so good of Judah to explain their situation and what would happen to their father, Jacob, if Benjamin did not return to him. Joseph, I'm sure, was glad to hear that his father was grieving for him. What a huge relief Joseph must have felt when he finally revealed who he was!
Thanks for missing me Brian, that's a real encouragement to persevere! We went on vacation and I'm just now catching up!
ReplyDeleteI love the whole 18th Psalm. It's so easy for me to see God as loving and kind, but God is also strong, powerful, and sometimes a little scary! I love that this amazing awe-inspiring God, cares enough about me to rescue me from my enemies and help me through me struggles. I love that I'm on God's side! If the enemies of God knew Him, they'd surely repent!
As I read Matthew, I saw the wind as the distractions in life. If we are able to focus on the important things in life (Jesus), our doubts will seem insignificant.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the discipline of reading every day, I am sure that you can tell that I struggle with keeping up - and will probably continue to be "behind", but maintain my enthusiasm! It does take 21 consecutive days of doing something before it becomes a "habit"...
Matthew is encouraging. When Jesus to answers the begging Gentile, that really lifts me up. Especially when she compares herself to a dog waiting for scraps from the Masters table. That really visualizes how low we "sometimes" must go. Thank God He loves us that much.
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