Today I began the New Testament in my scripture reading. Closing out the Old Testament reading all of the minor prophets was a blessing. Particularly this time, reading them with my new goal of learning to be fully surrendered and obedient. I found that this was exactly the theme of each minor prophet’s writing–leading the Israelites back to being fully surrendered and obedient. Now today I begin the New Testament.

One of the first things I noticed is that Matthew was written about 70 AD. I looked ahead at the other 4 gospels and found that the earliest written one was Mark–55 AD and John was sometime in the 90’s AD. I found this quite interesting because none of them were written while Jesus was with them. They were all written well past Jesus’ earthly life. Somehow, I wonder if each of them had to learn how to apply all that Jesus was teaching them ahead of writing it out?

I have never wanted to not be in God’s will for my life. Even ahead of giving my life to God I wanted to do what mom would tell us about living for Jesus and what our Sunday School teachers would be teaching us. However, I’ve sure learned in my past few years just how much I had learned in life’s experiences to hold onto things in my life which I wouldn’t surrender fully. These were things like trusting a man and man’s wisdom. I would far more trust a woman’s voice than a man’s. I know now this directly linked to dad and my brother’s abuse. Before, I just had this instinctive pattern of behavior. I’d act like I trusted it but I’d hold it in extreme scrutiny.

Today I am seeing that God’s ways of today are exactly like they were in these biblical times. Also, man’s ways are the same–self-centered and prideful. As I read through the New Testament this time I look forward to growing more fully into the surrendered and obedient soul God has always wanted me to be.