What God Thinks About Our Imperfections.

As I begin I want to ask a question.

Do our imperfections stop God’s grace from operating freely in our lives?

For the answer let us look at Matthew 1.

I want to focus on the genealogy of Jesus Christ because it is there that we find the answer.

You would think that list would be comprised of the who’s who at the time.

The rich and powerful, the superstars and such like people. But that was not the case.

The people on that list were the complete opposite. They were anything but perfect.

What I want to do is focus in on five women that were mentioned on that list.

The ONLY five women mentioned and I don’t think that was a mistake.

The women were Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary.

I am not going to talk about Mary because we know she was the mother of Jesus.

So let’s talk about the other women.

Rahab – We know she was a proustite but the direction of her life changed when she

welcomed and hide the spies by faith. Despite her past the Lord turned her life around.

Her imperfections, her past, her past sins did not stop the Lord from doing something

amazing in her life.

Bathsheba – At a time when kings were supposed to go for war, David stayed behind and

got into trouble. He slept with Bathsheba and had a child with her. To hide the fact, he got

Uriah her husband killed.

In a dark time, the Lord gave them Solomon and they found favor and grace. When

there didn’t seem to be a way out the Lord made a way for them.

Ruth – Ruth was a Moabite and was in a unique position.

“No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD,

not even in the tenth generation.”

Deuteronomy 23:3

The Moabites had a curse on them because they tried to stop Israel when they came from Egypt.

There was nothing Ruth could do about her nationality. She was born into it but that didn’t stop God from blessing

her in amazing ways. The Lord was with her despite her nationality.

Tamar – To read Tamar’s story you will have to go back to the book of Genesis 38:6-30

Judah had three sons and he got Tamar to marry his firstborn son. But he displeased the

Lord and was killed. She was then given to his second son and once again he displeased

the Lord and was killed. So Judah decided to not give Tamar his third born son because

he was afraid he would lose him too. But Tamar had a plan. She disguised herself as a

prostitute and slept with Judah and they had kids.

(this is a very condensed version of the story)

That was crazy right but that is the Tamar that is in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. She was a descendant

of Jesus Christ!

As you read all these women’s stories its clear to see how God did amazing things considering the

diverse things that happened.

The lesson is a simple one,

Don’t let your failures, your sins, where you were born and so much more make you believe that God

can’t use you.

He is not hindered by your imperfections. They don’t limit Him one single bit.

Trust Him to use you in amazing ways.

He loves and cares for you.

And to answer the question I asked in the beginning. The answer is no.

Our imperfections don’t stop God’s grace from moving in our lives.

Bless you friends

Rolain

He wants to use you….His power is available

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with wisdom and eloquence, lest 

the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

1 Corinthians 1:17

 

There is a power available to us, a power far greater than we have ever imagined.

When Christ died on the cross and rose again we were delivered.

We no longer had to rely on our own strength. We were empowered by what happened on the

Cross.

But let me tell you, I am convicted reading this because I don’t think I have been using this power enough.

I try at times to use my own strength, to get the focus on me but that’s not what Christ intended.

He is my strength, He is the reason I can do stuff.

 

The men and women of old did mighty acts not because they were amazing on their own but because

they accessed the power of YAH. They were very clear about who the “power” was.

 

I look now at my life and see a severe deficiency. I am not using the power of Christ to its limit.

When I teach I could be relying on the the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and use me more. I don’t ever want to

be okay with using my own eloquence, wit, cleverness and many other things to get by.

There is only one thing that touches and changes the heart of a man/woman and that is the Spirit of God.

I am just a vessel, not the power!

 

And here lies the problem, whenever I think I am the power and not the vessel I empty the Cross of Christ

of its power. When I stand in front of the kids I teach on Sunday or wave a flag for worship and think “it’s me”

I empty the Cross of Christ of its power.

 

The Lord wants to use us to do some incredible things but they can only be done when we lean on His

power, His ability, His strength.

We are called to minister in His power and not our own. I hope you have been challenged by the

word you have read today. To touch people, to do what Christ has called us to do we need His power.

We can’t do it on our own steam.

 

Bless you friends……

 

Rolain