January 3: Inclusive

Affirmation: I am gentle with myself & my mistakes. I treat my body with love & respect.
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Ponder, Personalize: Make Psalm 51:10 personal. Ask God to create in you a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit within you. Think about your heart and your mind…thoughts, perspectives, resilience, tenacity.

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.51.10.NIV
~~~~~~~
Praying the Message of Jesus: A Year of Thoughts and Prayers
by Eugene Peterson 

JANUARY 3 By Tamar

“By Tamar Judah had Perez and Zerah (the mother was Tamar), Perez had Hezron, Hezron had Aram . . . Salmon had Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Boaz had Obed (Ruth was the mother), Obed had Jesse, Jesse had David, and David became king. David had Solomon (Uriah’s wife was the mother).” MATTHEW 1:3, 5-6 
Four names in the list are a surprise: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba). Each of these names represents a person who was exploited, or downtrodden, or an outsider—the misused, the immoral, the foreign. Jesus’ genealogy doesn’t prove racial or moral purity, but redemptive range. God’s salvation work is inclusive, not exclusive. 
What do you know of each of these women? 
Do I have enough confidence, Lord, in your inventive and incorporative will, to believe that you will use unattractive, immoral, and unlovely people as well as the glamorous and virtuous and admirable? That is hard to believe, but the evidence is impressive. Help my unbelief. Amen.

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