Tag Archive | Matthew

Matthew 2 – The Guiding Star

Mar3

Good afternoon y’all. Today we are looking at Matthew Chapter 2.

Be blessed 🙂

Verses 1 – 12
The star shone and alerted the wise men to the birth of Jesus. The same star guided them to the place where Jesus was. This reminds me of Exodus where God guided his people to the promised land as a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.

We are never alone. God is always with us guiding us along the right path to go. The question is, are we ready to submit to Him and let Him guide us or are we contented with trying in our own strength? God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. He is the Beginning and the End. He knows everything. Why not allow a God who knows everything and has already seen tomorrow to guide you? He will never lead us astray: that’s His promise.

Psalm 32:8 says: “The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.I will advise you and watch over you”. (NLT)

God warned the wise men not to return to Herod and they obeyed him. They could have been scared of disobeying the king but the wise men chose to obey God instead and not return to the king.  Who are we obeying – Man or God ?

Verses 13 – 23
God sent an angel to speak to Joseph in a dream. God was protecting them from Herod. God is always a step ahead of the enemy. He will protect his own. He won’t leave us to fall prey to the enemy. Joseph and Mary obeyed the angel and left for Egypt. They stayed till Herod died and when it was time to come back, God appeared in a dream and told them to return and where to go.

God is the best place for safety. Psalm 27: 1- 6 says:

”The Lord is my light and my salvation; he protects me from danger—whom shall I fear? When evil men come to destroy me, they will stumble and fall! Yes, though a mighty army marches against me, my heart shall know no fear! I am confident that God will save me. The one thing I want from God, the thing I seek most of all, is the privilege of meditating in his Temple, living in his presence every day of my life, delighting in his incomparable perfections and glory. There I’ll be when troubles come. He will hide me. He will set me on a high rock out of reach of all my enemies. Then I will bring him sacrifices and sing his praises with much joy”. (TLB)

I also noticed that a lot of fulfillment came to pass in this chapter. This just shows that God is a promise-keeping God. He never goes back on His word. His word can be trusted. Not one of His word will return to him void. His word will always accomplish that which it has been sent to do. It might tarry but it will surely come to pass. Be encouraged and hold on to what God has told you. The circumstances might not tally with it, but be rest assured that God who has said it is able to bring it to pass. He cannot deny Himself.

Jeremiah 1: 12  says: “Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.” (ESV)

Isaiah 55: 11 says: “So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it”. (AMP)

Be encouraged today. God is able to guide and protect us. He watches over His word to make sure they are fulfilled in our lives.

Prayer:
Dear Lord we thank you for today. Thank you for your love towards us. Thank you for sending Jesus to come and save us. Today, we ask for the grace to trust You to guide and protect us. Even when trouble comes, help us to remain confident in you and know that all You have promised will surely come to pass. In Jesus’ Name we have prayed. Amen.

Thanks for joining today.

Have a blessed day basking in God’s grace and goodness 🙂

***With God all things are possible***

Matthew 1- God who Saves and God With Us

Mar2

Good evening y’all. Today we start our study of Matthew. We will be looking at Chapter 1 today.

Be blessed 🙂

Matthew 1:1-17

In the first 17 chapters we are introduced to Jesus’ Ancestors.

Two lessons I learnt from those verses that I would like to share-

1) God is a promise keeping God. He made a promise in Isaiah 11:1 and Isaiah 9:7 that the saviour would come from David’s royal line. Verse 1-16 confirms this. Jesus in human form, was a descendant of David.

This tells me that God doesn’t lie. He watches over His word to fulfil it. Whatever He has said, He surely will do. God cannot deny Himself. Be encouraged 🙂

“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”(Numbers 23:19 NLT)

“If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is”.(2 Timothy 2:13 NLT)

2) God is gracious and merciful. I look at some of the names mentioned and I’m thinking how did they make it to this hall of fame. These were people that one would least expect to see in the lineage of Jesus. I look at Rahab, her beginning was very bad but in the end God saved her and included her in the lineage of His son. I look at Ruth, she was a foreigner. Wasn’t even meant to enjoy the blessings of God seeing as she wasn’t an Israelite, yet God extended His grace and mercy to her and now we see her included in this beautiful genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This tells me that no one is beyond redemption. No matter how bad your beginning may be, when you surrender to God and let him have His way, He can turn your life around and use you for His glory.

Matthew 1: 18 – 25

Here, we are told how Jesus was conceived. This tallies with the prophecy that was given earlier in the old testatment in Isaiah 7:14

“All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)”. (Isaiah 7:14 NLT)

Joseph finds out that his fiance is pregnant and not by him. I was particularly struck by how he handled the situation.

Joseph didn’t act in a rash or spiteful manner towards her instead he was looking to cover her shame. He didn’t want her to be disgraced. That’s true love in action. Love doesn’t look to hurt or disgrace others. He acted in wisdom.

“The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced”. (Matthew 1:18-19 MSG)

Also, Josephs calm approach made it possible for him to get a direct message from God regards that which troubled him and immediately his anxiety was gone. All we need is a word from God and all our fears, troubles and anxieties will disappear. But we are too busy worrying and trying to solve the issue with our human mind that we can’t even hear God when He is speaking and trying to tell us what to do.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in God.

“Trust in the lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take”. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT)

Joseph was told to name the baby Jesus.
Jesus means saviour. He is the one who saves us. Whatever situation you are in now, know that you have a saviour in Jesus. All you need to do is call on Him, and He promises to answer. 

Let’s ponder on the greatness and power of our God. This great awesome God chose to come down in Human form and dwell with us. We see him experience life just like we do yet He never sinned showing us that He is God. The God who Saves and God With Us

Thanks for joining today.

I am blogging through the bible with Good morning girls. Check us out at http://www.goodmorninggirls.org.

image

***With God all things are possible***