Matthew 18 NIV

Welcome to the daily SOAP from New Hope I’m Jaci and I am on staff here at New Hope Church, and today I will be your guest speaker. We are going to read from Matthew, Chapter 18. If you haven’t taken a moment yet to read the chapter, you can click on the link in the email. Today’s reading really highlights our relationship with others and our significance with our relationship with God. This is where we'll pick up the reading:

Verse 19 reads,  “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

In this chapter, there are several amazing parables for our lives, many of which are majority favorites. Still, the overlying theme here is preserving our relationships with God and each other. First, Jesus says we should be like children, and I feel like this has so many meanings. Children are innocent beings, always eager and quick to learn, quick to forgive and create friendships, and I like to think of it that everything seemed so much easier when we were children. And as we grew up, we learned to adapt to our world; unfortunately, that means we’ve learned “how people are” and to live up to the “status quo,” and even Jesus knew, we can pass it on to those around us. Yet, like the one sheep, we are ALL important and significant and valued and loved by God. So much so, that he wants to make sure we continue to live our lives with each in honor and justice. Jesus knows that our greatest strength is in numbers (Even archeologists and historians will tell you that the reason humanity is at the top today is because we first saw value in our community.) and our weakness is also, each other. In verses 15 through 20, Jesus is talking about struggles, fights, drama, gossip and how the order should follow when a disagreement happens. He plainly lays out “…go and point out their fault, just between the two of you…” so why do we just jump ahead two steps and talk about it to everyone else first- we seem to want to gather as many people as we can “on our side” before solving it with the actual person. He goes on to point out that we are powerful together, but when we follow the correct steps, honor our Christ-like values, and ask for it by God’s name is when it will be honored by God. The flow of this chapter is truly amazing, I tend to read just the parables individually when needed but they truly do connect! The next parable, in my opinion is speaking specifically about the previous, “Ok, I have confronted the person who wronged me. What do I do next?” FORGIVE THEM. Jesus didn’t stutter. Continue to forgive, first and foremost, hard stop. And yet… Jesus continues about when the person betrays your good heart stating that God feels that strongly about your relationships with each other. All of these examples are guidelines for a Christian Life™ and we still doubt and question how we should be with each other – forgetting that this is what brings glory to God and shows people how we are changed - from the inside - out.

At this point I was going to write a prayer, but this is the beauty of the bible, it is a living word. This is the prayer from a previous SOAP I wrote, on what seemed like a really hard chapter, and didn’t have much to do with this book.

Let’s pray, “God help us soften our hearts to receive your guidance. Open our ears to hear your guidance when we call on you. Give us wisdom to do the right things we are doing in your name. And show us your grace when we fail. And most importantly, give us the encouragement to echo your love and compassion to our neighbors. We ask all of this in the powerful and loving name of Jesus. Amen.”