Jesus' Death And Recovering Addicts (3)
Wednesday April 12, 2017
What does Jesus' death and resurrection show me about persevering through difficult times? When we pray to God we want Him to immediately switch everything around for our good. We want others to be sorry for the harm they have caused us and to make things right. We want to quickly be finished with whatever needs doing to make our relationships and circumstances what we want them to be. God doesn’t work that way.
God invites us to first receive His love and be healed so that we begin to view everything in our lives, the good and the bad, from the perspective of His love and care. God kept reaching out to us in our addiction until we turned to Him for healing from our brokenness. Jesus died on the cross to give us new life before we ever realized who He was and what He had done on our behalf. Now that we have turned our will and our life over to God’s care, He wants us to have faith in Him to make everything beautiful in His time.
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 cross was agonizing punishment for Jesus but He endured it because it made a way for humans to be delivered from the power of sin and death. For those who believe in Jesus, God has promised that He will work all things together for good. Unfortunately, we often “give up on God” too soon. We need to come to that place where we believe that God is never too early nor too late, He is always on time. We are the impatient ones.
The choice before us today is to trust God and endure, looking forward to what lies ahead, or, to stumble and fall based on what we are experiencing today. Why not follow Jesus’ example and “run with endurance the race God has set before us?”
Prayer: Loving God, I confess that I am often impatient with Your timing in the events of my life. From this day forward, I choose to submit to Your plan for my life. Help me to be patient. Amen
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