Happy New Year to you all and may His perfect will be established in your lives this year!
With Prayers, Sarah
It's a new year! And that means starting from the beginning in my Bible reading plan. Last year was probably my best year yet as far as territory covered. I finished the Bible early and managed to re-read Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Acts. It was really exciting but towards the end of the year, as much as I was enjoying the read, I found I was doing more of the "get my Bible read in the morning but not really meditating on it in the moment or even through out the day" thing. So, among other things, one of my New Year's Resolutions, if you will, was to get back to truly studying and meditating upon the Word. It's His love letter to me! What better way to get to know Him and fall more in love with Him than to really get to know His Word. So! All of that to say, yesterday I was reading the first chapter of Matthew. It's one of my favorite chapters. It gives the lineage of Christ and I love it. There are so many of my favorite people in that lineage. And people that you wouldn't expect. I still remember how awesome it was to me when I realized that Rahab the harlot (spelled Rachab here) was in the lineage of Christ. That said, she isn't the only "naughty" person in that line. There's also Thamar who played the role of an harlot when Judas didn't keep his promise to her and there's Solomon who was born of David and Bath-Sheba (and we all know what happened there). And I'm sure there are others but those are the most commonly known ones besides Rahab. Now, being human my first thought was, "See! These people did horrible stuff and were still greatly used of the Lord!" and my thoughts instantly went to that one little thing I have (we all have one or two) that I struggle with wanting. . . Something that isn't necessarily against the Lord's will but it definitely isn't His perfect will for my life. My thought was that I could have that and still be used of the Lord. Shame on me, I know. But then, my immediate next thought was on how much more the Lord can use me, us, if we surrender to His will before "messing it up". Yes, the Lord has used many a people who failed in large ways but then re-surrendered their life and mistakes to Him and His will. But how much greater and with how much less sorrow can the Lord use our lives if we will abstain from those mistakes. Surrender before. Not after the mistake is made. So as I give that one thing back to the Lord in the beginning of a new year, take a look and see what you need to surrender to Him. Don't learn from your mistakes. Learn from other's mistakes, and before you make your own.
Happy New Year to you all and may His perfect will be established in your lives this year! With Prayers, Sarah
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AuthorHere you can read "Sarah's Thoughts". A blog by me! Just a little bit once a month, and here and there, about something the Lord is speaking to me about or focusing on a certain verse that I've found particularly interesting for some reason. You can also subscribe (below) to have them directly sent to your email. Just fill in your name and email and put "Newsletter" in the comment box. Also, please feel free to leave a comment on my blog to let me know what you think! I love hearing from you! Thanks! Sarah's Thoughts
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