In the genealogy of Jesus recorded in Matthew we encounter a bunch of very interesting details--let me just highlight one:Matthew 1:6b -- "David (that is King David) was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah..."
Did you catch that???
Do you recall the story?
If you don't know it--in short, King David saw a naked woman, thought to himself "I gotta have her" so he did...well she was married, got pregnant, things got messy so King David KILLED her husband and took her as his own. Her husband was this man "Uriah". And from his wife that King David took--Solomon was born. Yikes right!? Talk about a mess!
What's the point?
Not only did Solomon become the wisest and richest King in Israel's history--but more significantly--out of this mess of sin the line of King David continued down to the birth of JESUS!
Isn't it amazing that God allowed his own Son to be born through such dysfunction and sin?? (and this is just one example from the genealogy) Even through all the mess that people made--God still accomplished His purpose of sending His Son in order to redeem us and rescue us from the sin and mess that WE created.
So what might this mean to you?
Maybe you've looked at how messed up your life is and you think--"God could never accomplish anything good out of this"... Don't believe that lie! No matter how much of a mess your life might be--it is right into the middle of that mess that Jesus wants to come to bring healing, restoration and to transform you for His glory and for the benefit of His Kingdom!
Will you let Him? Will you invite Him into your life--mess and all--and say "Jesus can you work with this? Can you do something with my mess of a life?" I promise you His answer will be YES!
Amen...I have clinged to that thought during pit times in my life. I wondered if Paul's thorn in the flesh might possibly be his past....the guilt over persecuting Christians, the shame of being the one who hurt loved ones of the people who were now his friends and fellow believers....BUT God still used him.
ReplyDeleteGod can use me and my mess too.
Thanks for the encouragement.