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

What does Jesus death show me about getting through difficult times?

When we pray to God we want Him to immediately change everything for our good.  We want others to be sorry for the harm they have caused us and to make things right.  We want to be done and finished with whatever needs doing to make our relationships and circumstances what we want them to be.  It doesn’t work that way.

God invites us first to be healed and strengthened in His love so that we will view everything in our lives from this perspective.  He pursued us with His love because He knew the treasure He had created in us.  He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sin before we even turned to Him.  In love He kept reaching out to us until we eventually turned to Him for forgiveness and healing. He now calls us to reach out in love to others as He has reached out to us.

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)). 

Jesus had to go through the suffering and death of the cross before God’s plan of redemption was fully understood by His friends.  Even though Jesus had told His disciples that three days after He died on the cross He would be resurrected from the dead they appeared not to have listened.  When Jesus was resurrected from the dead the power of death was broken over mankind and that same power is at work in each of us who believe.  God has promised that He will work all things together for good for those who love Him. Unfortunately we often “give up on God” too soon.  The truth is that God’s way in God’s time is always best.   He is never early or late, He is always on time.

The choice before us today is to trust God and endure, looking forward to what lies ahead or stumble and fall by acting on the basis of what we see and experience today.  Why not follow Jesus’ example and “run with endurance the race God has set before us?”

©2015 Partners in Hope