I’d love to hear from you in the comments! Share a thought or two from this Weeks’s reading in Matthew to encourage each other.
One section that I LOVED this week was :
“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matt 9:13
The literal translation of that shows Jesus saying something more along the lines of, ‘I delight to give help & mercy to sinners. I am determined to bring this world mercy, not a demand of adherence to the law.’
This is good news for the spiritually sick such as you and me!
Mercy incarnate came and forever changed my life. He became the sacrifice so that the demands on me were paid in full by Himself and I was left with full mercy.
So, what hit you in reading this week?
Valley Women's Encouragement Conference 
Confession time! This week someone (a Christian) called me out in public. I believe it was strongly influenced by a past issue with me. I am not on their favorite persons list. If it had been someone besides me standing there, I think my ‘transgression’ would have been overlooked. I came home with dark thoughts and poured out the story of my bitter frustration to my closest people all the while feeding my ‘righteous’ anger.
But as the days passed the Holy Spirit reminded me of my Bible reading notes on Matthew. Maybe my righteous anger wasn’t so righteous!
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (not my personal version) for they shall be satisfied (I certainly was not!).
Matthew 5:19 “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees …. GUILTY!
5:22 “ … anyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement …”. GUILTY!
5:39 “ … if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also … “. GUILTY!
Which reminded me of 1 Peter 3:9 “ … do not repay evil (my thoughts towards them) for evil (their thoughts towards me)”. GUILTY!
6:12 “… and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors …”. GUILTY!
Which reminded me of Luke 18:11 “ … God, I thank you that I am not like other men … “. GUILTY!
7:2. “ … for with the judgement you pronounce … and with the measure you use it will be measured to you … “. GUILTY!
7:3 “… why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye …”. GUILTY!
We often make the standard for other Christians much higher than the one we have for ourselves! Or more like it, we just assume we have reached the standard and they haven’t. We are OK.
Smell what I’m smokin’? I looked into the mirror of God’s Word and realized that to be honest with myself, my heart attitude is no more righteous than the person who called me out!
7:14 It is a ‘narrow gate and a hard road’ that the Christian is called to travel – a pride swallowing, offence and resentment mortifying, turn the other cheek and give others the grace you want to receive kind of road! Hard!!! But it leads to LIFE – real life! Clean, fresh, guilt free, genuine, filled with vitality, quality and satisfaction. Devoted to God, not myself. It’s hard. That is why “few (Christians) there be that find it”. This one thing I ask – God help me to get over myself and be numbered among that blessed few!
LikeLike
💥💥💥🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
LikeLike
I don’t know if I know how to post here 😂 I’ll try! So, it is not the time of day when I have brain power left so my apologies if I don’t make any sense.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is ours! Meanwhile, be merciful peacemakers who are meek while being persecuted. Easy peasy, right? 🤪 lots for me to think about there.
Chapter six when talking about the hypocrites who blow their own horns Jesus says “they have received thier reward” three different times. Their reward is the praise and recognition of men. That’s not what we should be looking for. Our reward is Jesus and what better reward can there be? So as tempting as it is to have everyone recognize you for this or that or to spend time justifying your actions so people understand you, etc, we truly need only aim to please God in our obedience to Him and we can’t spend time worrying about what others think of us. I think that’s been a huge lesson for me the past couple of years – people think what they want on very little information and honestly, that’s none of my business. I need to only be focused on Jesus.
Chapter 6:25-34. Yep, needed that 😬 “Sufficient for the day is it’s own trouble”
LikeLike