He gave it all
A few weeks ago we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus and we thought about the sacrifice He brought for all of us. Jesus was crucified and took all our sin, shame and guilt on His shoulders. He took the punishment so that we could be set free. He gave it all so that we could be free.
He gave His life, but that wasn’t easy. It cost Him blood, sweat, and tears. When He took it all on His shoulders He became one with all our wrongdoings, our shame, our sicknesses, our guilt, our troubles, our loneliness, our brokenness. Jesus can identify Himself with our pain, with our sicknesses, with how we feel and what we are going through cause He has been through it all. First by becoming human and live a life in this broken world and then by drinking the cup and taking all that brokenness on Himself.
There is nothing greater God could have done for us. He gave it all because He loved us. The 40 days towards Easter we are maybe more aware of this fact then the rest of the year, but still, do we really realize what this means?
Why do I have to go through this?!
How often are we like Job, screaming towards God. Asking Why? Why does this need to happen to me? Why do I have to go through this? Why aren’t you doing anything about it?
When we choose to believe that Jesus, God Himself died for our sins so we could be saved and have eternal life, the moment we choose to surrender our lives to Him and be His follower, this expectation often enters our belief that God from then on will pave the road ahead of us. Maybe we think that when we become Christians we will be and stay healthy, wealthy and experience only His blessings upon our lives.
Of course, God wants to bless you, keep you healthy and does He want you to prosper in all you do. But it’s not a promise that this is what you will get and that no harm or pain will come your way. If God didn’t spare His only son, why do you think you will be spared? Isn’t it in our troubles that our belief will prove itself?
He is right there with us
We are still living in a broken world, brokenness is all around us, every day. You only have to read the newspaper, put on the tv or look around you. The devil goes around like a roaring lion.
We are not Christians because we will be spared from all of this. No, we are Christians because we believe that in our distress and in our despair, God is with us. He will never leave us, nor forsake us. His plan with us is a plan for us to prosper and have a future filled with hope. We believe that nothing can separate us from His love. We believe that whatever we have to go through in life, from the moment we accept Christ in our lives, we will never have to do life alone anymore. God is beside us, in front of us, behind us and all around us.
When we experience difficulties in our lives and we look back we maybe see only one set of footprints in the sand. And you may think you have walked this trial all alone. But the footprints aren’t yours, they are Jesus His footprints, carrying you through this trial.
Footprints in the sand
He is our hope and our salvation. How hard life can get it is never hopeless with God. In the midst of our troubles, we may always know that it will not end that way.
Hillsong has this beautiful new song which I like to share with you:
Another in the fire
And should I ever need reminding
How good You’ve been to me
I’ll count the joy come every battle
Cause I know that’s where You’ll be
Let this song be a reminder of God is with you in the fire and that whatever may come your way, it has no hold on you.
Read also: The-real-life-gospel
