I think I'm Back

You may have noticed my lack of spiritual blog posts in the past few months until this week. The Lord and I were the best of friends for a long time, as I was digging deeper into His Word over the past year or so. But then He did something that I didn't like. See Waiting Part 2 to get more reference to that. And even though I knew that it was all for the best in my head and my heart because He told me so, I still got mad and left Him waiting for me. Thank goodness He's so patient with me. I was thinking of my kids again, how they react when I tell them "no". Luckily I have good kids who don't normally pitch fits, but it has happened. They fall on the floor kicking and screaming. I'm not a kicker and a screamer. But when I do get mad at someone, I give them the silent treatment. (Ask my husband.) Of course, that's only in my most immature stages of life, HA! So it finally dawned on me that I was giving the Lord the silent treatment. As if it hurts Him terribly. I'm sure He is disappointed that I'm not talking to Him, but He can go on with His plans without me no problem. I'm the only one missing out on the relationship. So we had a good heart to heart last week and I think I'm back. I'm back in His Word and can feel my thirst for it coming back, slowly.
When I left off my Bible reading plan months ago, I was in Isaiah, and that's not the best place to restart my love for the Word, so I just started in Matthew, Chapter 1 today, thinking I would breeze through it and move on to chapter 2, but I got so much out of it that I wanted to share the biggest things.
* The genealogy from vs 2-16 shows so many different types of people, men & women, good & evil, righteous & unrighteous. A good reminder that He can use anyone, no matter what your background.
* I was so inspired by Joseph's obedience to ignore what the world told him was right and acceptable and marry Mary even though she was pregnant with someone else's child. And he was obviously a Godly man because he recognized that his dream was real and set out to obey it immediately.
* I looked up the word "Messiah" from verse 16 and saw that part of the definition was "the expected king and deliverer of the Jews," and that word "expected" got me. The Jews were expecting a Messiah but He didn't meet their expectations so many didn't accept the very thing they had been waiting for. How many times do I ask God for something and then really wait and expect Him to answer? And when He does, if its not up to my expectations, do I discount it or accept it and praise Him for His answer. It reminded me of this verse.
"In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." Psalm 5:3
O Lord, may I truly be waiting for you, expecting you to answer, expecting miracles, expecting to see you working around me. And may I not ignore you when you do answer prayers! Thank you for not just meeting our expectations, but far surpassing them, exceedingly and abundantly more! Amen.