Matthew 7 on Monday, December 14, 2015
SCRIPTURE
I read Matthew 7 at this link:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt+7&version=HCSB
Please read Matthew 7 from any source yourself choose before you read ahead here.
The key verses and passages are:
Matt 7:1-6, 7:7-8, 7:13-27.
Here is a link with good study information regarding the key verses and passages:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt+7%3A1-6%2C+7%3A7-8%2C+7%3A13-27%2C+&version=HCSB
When you use that link, click on the cog wheel at the top of the webpage, by the first Bible verse, and make sure all the boxes are checked for the options to read that Bible. Then, you will have cross-references and some footnotes.
Again, every single verse in this chapter of Matthew 7 should be read repeatedly. Each verse is important. It would be a good chapter to memorize.
Matthew 7:1-6 is about how we should not judge. Often times, we do not even realize we are judging. Yet, we are. This is what we also need to watch out for. Do you ever gossip and say unflattering things about someone? That's judging. Do you ever say, "What are they doing?" Or... "Well, that was stupid." Do you ever curse because of what someone did. Do you ever criticize someone, even if it is just inwardly? All of this is judging.
Often times we judge and are critical because we need to look within. Something is off with us, so we are more apt to find issues with another. If we spend more time in the Word and in prayer for the next several days to weeks, then we will be filled and will be closer to the Lord and we will not need to look at anyone else but Him. This helps us to not judge.
Matthew 7:7-8 is about asking God and prayer. These are my absolute key verses for this passage. More on them in a few.
Another key passage is:
///
Matthew 7:13-14 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
Entering the Kingdom
13 “Enter through the narrow gate.(A) For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction,(B) and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.
Cross references:
7:13-14 : Lk 13:23-24
7:13 : Mt 26:8; Mk 14:4; Jn 17:12; Ac 8:20; Rm 9:22; Php 1:28
-- Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.
///
Nothing in this life is easy or fair.
Hence, if anything is easy or fair in your life, you better evaluate it fast and immediately. You are off track. You might not be praying or reading, studying, applying the Bible like you could.
God never promised being a Christian was easy.
We are to pray all the time and never stop (see Phil. 4:6-8), always count our blessings and give thanks (see 1 Thess. 5:17-18) , and meditate on the Bible morning, noon, and night (see Psalm 1:1-2). The Bible tells us these things. Are they easy? Umm. No. But, there is a reason. If we were to do these things, our Christian life would be not easy, but deeper and will have more satisfaction.
If we are looking for the easy way, and the road everyone else takes, then we are not truly wanting to live the full Christian life. We are then looking for the convenient one.
Is your schedule yours or God's? Give any answer you wish. Open up your calendar and look at it. Apart from working, is the 75% of it or more full of godly activities (prayer and Bible) or is it full of busyness? This will tell which gate you use.
Are you too busy to pray? Are you too busy to read, study, and apply the Bible? Then, the wide gate appeals to your lifestyle.
Goodness. I am looking in the mirror, and at my calendar, and am feeling convicted.
Narrow or wide... Godly or ungodly. With Him or not. Faithful in lifestyle or not. With God, there are no grey areas, only black and white. Which will we choose this day?
How will I shape my calendar this week? Next year?
///
We are to pray and never stop. We are to pray about everything. All the time.
///
Matthew 7:7-8 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
Keep Asking, Searching, Knocking
7 “Keep asking,[a](A) and it will be given to you.(B) Keep searching,[b] and you will find. Keep knocking,[c] and the door[d] will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds,(C) and to the one who knocks, the door[e] will be opened.
Footnotes:
Matthew 7:7 Or Ask
Matthew 7:7 Or Search
Matthew 7:7 Or Knock
Matthew 7:7 Lit and it
Matthew 7:8 Lit knocks, it
Cross references:
7:7-11 : Lk 11:9-13
7:7 : Mt 18:22; Mk 11:24; Jn 14:13-14; 15:7; 16:24; Jms 1:5; 1Jn 3:22; 5:14
7:8 : Pr 8:17; Is 55:6; Jr 29:12-13
-- Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.
///
OBSERVATION
See above.
APPLICATION
I want to keep asking.
I want to live the life of the narrow gate and have my calendar reflect such.
I want to memorize this chapter and will start to do so today.
PRAYER
Lord, help me to live these things.
No comments:
Post a Comment