What Does Jesus' Death Have To Do With Me? (3)?

What Does Jesus’ Death Have To Do With Me? (3)?

For the past couple of days we've been thinking about this amazing gift we get from Jesus -- his life in exchange for ours; our sinful brokenness for His healing and wholeness. 


Choosing God’s way is the first step along the path to healthy living.  The next step is to patiently wait for the seeds we have sown to grow into the new life we want.  Seeds take time to sprout and grow.  However, sometimes we want to pray a prayer and have everything immediately changed for good.  We want people to be sorry for what they have done.  We want them to make things right for us before we choose to give away our hurt and resentment.  We want done and finished whatever needs doing to make our relationships and circumstances what we want them to be.  It doesn’t work that way.

God's way is simple but not always easy.  God invites us to partake of His love FIRST and then view everything else from the perspective of being greatly loved.  God wants us to treat others in the same way He treats us and that is not easy.  God saw the difficult and ugly choices we made in the past.  He pursued us with His love because He knew the treasure He had created us to be.  In love He held firm to us until the difficult was resolved.   He now calls us to do the same thing for others. 

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.  (Matthew 6:33 NLT)  And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8 NLT)

As we choose to do those things that God says works we can leave all the consequences with Him.  He has promised that He works all things together for the good of those that love Him.  Unfortunately we often “give up on God”.  Temptation raises its ugly head and we forget that God is able to make us stand against it.  A memory returns.  The circumstances around us are not to our liking and change seems far off.  Something that we were sure was the answer to our prayer crashes or even ends. 


Life is lonely and seemingly empty at this time.  The word of God for us in those moments is, “let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne”.   (Hebrews 12:1b-2 NLT)). 

The truth for those following the ways of God is, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”  (Romans 8:28 NLT)  Jesus submitted to the pain and suffering of the cross because of the joy of releasing us from the penalty of sin. Will we trust ourselves or Him who endured on our behalf?  Will we look forward to what lies ahead or stay with what we see today? Will we trust ourselves or the God who has demonstrated His faithfulness through time and will throughout eternity?   

©2014 Partners in Hope  

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