Day 8 of our 25 Days of Advent devotional series
We're back with Day 8 of our 25 Days of Advent devotional series. To Quickly recap, Advent is the preparation period for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. To prepare, we are partaking in daily devotionals until Christmas Day. With that said, let's jump right into today's devotional.
Today, let us read Read Matthew 1:1-17. This passage is lengthy, so please read it on your own, but to summarize, it shows the Genealogy of Jesus Christ. Jesus' family tree was far from perfect. God often uses imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan. We have countless examples of this in the Bible. Let's take a look at Abraham. He followed God to an unknown land but lost faith in God's plan for his family and had a son with his maid (Genesis 16:1-4), or even David, known as a man after God's heart, committed adultery and murdered his good friend to cover it up (2 Samuel 11). Rahab was a prostitute (Joshua 2).
The men and women in Jesus' family tree brought suffering to their world. People were hurt, even killed, as a result of their decisions. But God's grace is greater than our sin. Jesus commissions us to be part of His story. These examples of imperfect people show you that God can accomplish His perfect plan with imperfect people. Being imperfect doesn't excuse our sin, but as long as we repent and change our ways. God can work through us to change the world despite our past flaws.
Even me I'm far from perfect but now that I know who God is, I've repented and built up my own new relationship with God and I’ve been made new. I do my best to live the right way as God designed.
Take some time to reflect on Matthew 1:1-17 and ask yourself these questions:
How does God work through human imperfection? How have you seen this?
What does it mean to repent? How does God's kindness lead to repentance?
Listen to the song My Story Your Glory by Matthew West as you pray and meditate on this word.
We have concluded day eight of our 25 Days of Advent series. As your sister in Christ, I hope you have a fantastic holiday season. Merry Christmas, and have a wonderful day.
