30 Day Reading Challenge

In 30 days, I will share to you some of my personal take aways from my day-to-day reading of the New Testament. All verses will be in New Living Translation (NLT) and after every verse, you will see my personal reflection marked in ‘bullet’. Enjoy reading and God Bless.

It’s the first day of 2019 and I am excited to start the 30 day reading challenge of New Testament. Today, I will be reading from Matthew chapters one to seven (Matthew 1–7). Below are some of my personal takeaways:

Matthew 3:8 Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.

• The way we live (as Christians) matters because this is our proof that we repented from sins and really turned to God.
• How we live (as Christians) and our lifestyle choices matter.

Matthew 4:22 They immediately followed him (Jesus), leaving the boat and their father behind.

• This is the time wherein Jesus is calling James and John to follow him. We can see from here that it take sacrifices in following Jesus such as leaving our work and our family. If you will read the full text from Matthew 4:21–22, in the case of James and John, they have to leave their nets (since they are fishermen) and leave their father (Zebedee) who is with them fishing.
• It takes sacrifices to follow Jesus but the reward in following him is worth more than the sacrifices.

Matthew 5:18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.

We can learn from here the different characteristics of God such as:

• Purposeful- we can see that God has a purpose in everything. He does things with meaning.
• Faithful- God is very certain that everything He said will happen. Making sure that nothing is left unfulfilled.
• Keen to details- God knows every smallest details of his law. This characteristic of God is very evident in how he made us, the animals, the earth and the universe.

Matthew 5:19 … But anyone who obeys God’s law and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

• Both obeying and teaching (God’s word) is required by God. This is considered as one. That is why it is our marching goal (as Christians) to share the gospel to other people. We are not just doer of the word but we are also the messenger of the word.
• There’s a reward in obeying and teaching the law and that is being great in the kingdom of God.

Matthew 6:22 Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light.

• Be careful where we gaze our eyes upon. What we see affects our body. Again, our eyes are gateway to our body and soul.

Matthew 7:7 Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

This verse pertains to Effective Prayer verse. I came up with an acronym and to my surprised it formed a word ASK:

• A for Ask- when we pray, we ask God and when we ask, we expect to receive from Him.
• S for Seek- when we pray, we seek God and when we seek Him, we will find Him. This is for sure because he always make himself available to his children.
• K for Knock- when we pray we knock for his presence and surely he will open it us.

So when we pray, we really have to ASK with expectations to receive from Him. But again, praying is more that just asking about our needs is it also our means of communicating to God.

Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.

• The people who will enter the heaven are those people who DO the will of God.
• God is looking for a DOER and NOT JUST HEARER of His words.

So these are some of the take aways that I had from my Day 1 of 30 reading challenge of New Testament. I hope you are encouraged and blessed by the verses.

Always remember that Jesus loves you.

Thank you and God bless. :)