Matthew 28:9-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, \u2018Rejoice.\u2019\u2026Then Jesus said to them, \u2018Do not be afraid\u2026\u2019 \u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As the women ran off to obey the commands given by the Angel, it seemed Jesus had to intersect their journey by giving them two final commands quickly. \u201cRejoice,\u201d \u2013 was the first command Jesus gave the women. What Jesus was telling them was, \u201cAs you take this message forward, make sure you are doing it with an attitude of rejoicing, irrespective of what you meet on the way.\u201d Serving Jesus can be very tasking. Obeying Jesus can be very demanding. Walking with Jesus can be very draining. That\u2019s why Jesus commands us to rejoice, knowing that many things are capable of stealing our joy in obeying Him. Jesus does not only give a command; He helps us fulfill the commandment. Jesus is our joy, and as we serve Him, He will indeed fill our hearts with His joy in obeying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second important command is, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d Fear kills rejoicing. In the ministry of serving Jesus and serving men through Jesus, many terrifying things will come our way. But Jesus says to us that we should not fear whatever is out there, because He is with us. He says, \u201cI am with you always.\u201d The knowledge that God is with us should kill every atom of fear in us. If we believe His words, then we have no legitimate reason to be afraid. Even when fear stares us in the face, we should stare back knowing that God Almighty lives within us and is walking with us, and is staring at that fearful situation with us. Hallelujah to the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI embrace Your two commands this morning Lord. I will not be afraid, but I will rejoice in serving You, and serving men through You. Fear will not steal my joy, and by faith in Christ, I will continue serving with joyfulness, in Jesus\u2019 name I pray. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 28:9-10 \u201cAnd as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, \u2018Rejoice.\u2019\u2026Then Jesus said to them, \u2018Do not be afraid\u2026\u2019 \u201d As the women ran off to obey the commands given by the Angel, it seemed Jesus had to intersect their journey by giving them two final commands quickly. \u201cRejoice,\u201d \u2013 was […]<\/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":[42],"class_list":["post-4690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew","tag-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\/4690","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=4690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4692,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4690\/revisions\/4692"}],"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=4690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}