A Faith Journal

Another repost but really it’s a good reminder that what we hope the future will look like, we may never get to see it personally. It’s still important to work towards that future though.

Today we’ll start to look at the Christmas story as told by Matthew. Matthew and Luke both tell the Christmas story, but Matthew’s version focuses more from Joseph’s perspective while Luke’s is more from Mary’s perspective. Before we get to the birth of Jesus in Matthew, we see a full genealogy report. Why does Matthew put this in there? The book of Matthew is full of references to the Old Testament and this list of names is just the start of them. We see in verse 1 that Matthew points to two of Israel’s most respected and important “fathers.” With each of these fathers, we see they trusted God and never got to see the fulfillment of all God promised them. Abraham was promised to be a father with as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. Also, his descendants would have all the land from the Egypt border to the Euphrates River (Genesis 15). He got to see his son grow up, but nothing else of the promise. David was promised to have one of his descendants build a temple for God (2 Samuel 7). David prepared for the physical temple, but never saw it built. Joseph was Jesus’ earthly father. He was told Jesus would save his people from sin, but Joseph didn’t live long enough to see Jesus fulfill His role as savior (Matthew 1).

What does all this have to do with hope, you may ask? Each of these men listened and obeyed God, hoping that future generations would benefit from the work they did for God. We have benefited, but are future generations going to benefit from what we are doing now? What we do for God is just as important now, as it was then. Jesus will be returning, and it is our calling to reach others to prepare them and future generations. God has blessed you in some way, use it to bless someone else. The use of your gift from God could bless future generations. You’ll probably never see its full effect but know God will not let your efforts go to waste. With everything we do for God, we are hopeful that future generations realize we were working for them to have a blessed future with God.

Lord,

We see the sacrifices, trials and troubles that past generations have experienced to progress Your kingdom. They didn’t always do as you said, but you used what they did to help future generations. We want to help future generations be prepared, as well, for Jesus’ return. Show us how we can use the gifts you have given us to do so. We pray that all our trials and troubles can also be used to strengthen future generations. We place our trust and hope in you. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.