Prayer is an expression of our internal need for God’s guidance and direction. It’s an act of yielding to the power and purpose of God in our lives. If we’re praying for real, we are actually surrendering to the will and plan of God. The deepest part of this understanding is that it’s not all internal, it’s not all spiritual.

Sideway distractions will be present and issues of life will pop up, finances and other concerns can be burdensome and make us stall or slow down; but if we keep our eyes open to what God is doing in our world and in our lives, then we will keep driving ahead to our destination.

Oxford Dictionary defines attitude as a “settled way of thinking and feeling” that’s directed to something or someone. It’s a “mental state”. It makes sense then that Jesus began His ministry by preaching repentance followed by this “Sermon on the Mount” on, you guessed it, attitude.

Jesus said, “Man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Jesus obviously placed an incredible importance on Word. When we read it, it’s not that man cannot live off of eating bread, but man can’t do it with just that. Man needs God’s Word along with the essential things of life.

Playing “second” is an underrated thing. Because the highlight reels are filled by the super stars, the play of the second is not underscored. When we think of championships and parades, we think of the Michael Jordans, the Derek Jeters, and the Tiger Woods’ of the world. More often than not, we don’t put too much attention on the Pippens, the Rileys, and the LaCavas or Williams’ of the world. But there would hardly be a “Number 1” if there were no excellent “Number 2”.

Jesus was from the hood. He was from “that side” of the town you wouldn’t have travelled to during the day and much less during the night. When we study His moniker, “Jesus of Nazareth,” we find that that was not a good thing.

Every other claims of this book or our own claims of the messiahship of Jesus is anchored on this genealogy. If Jesus is not in the lineage of David, the whole argument of Him being the promised messiah will fall apart. If that falls apart, then the efficacy of the blood of Jesus at Calvary would be moot.