Monday, January 2, 2012

Skeletons in the closet

I was reading the first chapter in Matthews. It lists the geneaolgy of Jesus. WOW! He has some very questionable members of his family. There are people like Rahab-a prostitute, Jacob-a cheat, David-an adulterer and murderer and Solomon-a man who had many wives and concubines and turned his heart from God. Had Jesus not been named Immanuel-GOD WITH US, this could have put Jesus to shame. Jesus chose to be a part of these people, to save them and be a part of their story.
There are skeletons in all of our closets. Most of the skeletons in our closet are from our own poor choices and decisions, not from a genealogy of which we have little or no control over. The skeletons in our closet can haunt us, make us feel worthless, miserable, lonely...you name it, they can do it AND that is exactly what Satan wants. He wants anything possible to get in the way of us seeing ourselves like God sees us. He wants us to be miserable all the time, lonely all the time, to feel worthless and useless all the time. He wants us to die and that is what he is working so hard at every second of every minute of every hour of every day.
But GOD IS WITH US-IMMANUEL. God loves you. He died for you. He thinks you are worthy and He thinks you are so useful. He has given you talents to use and he thinks you are awesome at those talents. We can never repay Him for the sacrifice He made for us, but we can look to Him, call on Him and know that He is God WITH us...all of us...no matter the skeletons we have hiding in our closets.
So, what skeletons do you need to hang out to dry and wither away? Get rid of them, don't give Satan the power and remember "...they will call him Immanuel-which means, 'God with us.'" Matthew 1:23