Matthew 28:5<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut the angel answered and said to the women, \u2018Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.\u2019 \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Heaven responds to the inner seeking of our hearts. We don\u2019t need to always vocalize our thoughts or our desires because God knows them exactly as and when we think them. That\u2019s why it\u2019s total foolishness to try to impress God by external activities that do not correspond with the inward reality. That type of duality and duplicity don\u2019t impress God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the Angel appeared, both the guards and the women were obviously scared, but heaven responded to them differently. For the guards, they were made afraid because they stood against the will of God. However, for the women who had come to the tomb seeking Jesus, they received a comforting word from the Angel because God saw their heart motive. Heaven responds to each of us differently based on what brings us to Jesus, and what our heart motives are. To one, God may bring terror and fear, while to another; God may bring peace and comfort. So, let\u2019s stop living in duplicity. Let\u2019s come to Jesus with pure motives and sincere hearts. If we come correctly, we can be sure that heaven\u2019s response to us will be positive and comforting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFather, You see my thoughts even before I think it. Have mercy on me for I cannot survive if You terrorize me. Rebuke me when my thoughts are wrong but draw me closer in, Lord. Don\u2019t rebuke me and leave me outside trembling. I can\u2019t make it without Your words of assurance and comfort. I pray these, in Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 28:5 \u201cBut the angel answered and said to the women, \u2018Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.\u2019 \u201c Heaven responds to the inner seeking of our hearts. We don\u2019t need to always vocalize our thoughts or our desires because God knows them exactly as and when we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Matthew.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4671,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4668\/revisions\/4671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}