05/12/2018
Is your life so disjointed, and your spiritual journey so up and down that you often are brought to doubt that God is at work in you at all? If this is you then you need to lean on the Word and listen as scripture reassures you that God is absolutely desiring to be the focal point of your life, and to give you His joy, and overwhelming rest, peace, and comfort in Himself.
“And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”2 Corinthians 1:21-22 ESV
Some people are defeated by the fact that they can’t stand to see someone else succeed, or their life running along smoothly. These people, and I think this trait is buried, to some degree, in all of us, brings one to covet the joy of others. Rather than concentrating on their own lives, and their own tranquility they find irritation in another’s good fortune and to an obsession in their fall. Where does this discord come from? It comes from he who is in the world, and is meant to encourage us in ourselves, our humanity, so that we would be separated from Jesus Christ, and God Himself.
If, for a moment, you allow yourself to imagine the scene at the foot of the cross as Jesus hung there on the verge of death, can you hear the jeers? “Come on, Son of God! Come on, King of the Jews! Where is your power now!?” The cat calls, the spiting, and the mocking did nothing to improve the lives of those who surrounded our Lord... they only served to bring down someone they coveted and were jealous of. In their eyes it was much easier to live a lie than to climb the mountain of truth. Yet, in the midst of all of this Jesus did not hate them back, He overrode human nature, and in the midst of all this derision and suffering said something that brings tears to my eyes even now... “Father, forgive them”.
“And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And they cast lots to divide his garments.”Luke 23:34 ESV
When the life of Jesus was in the midst of it’s ultimate temptations in the desert, challenged by those in power, or mocked while on the cross, He found strength, truth, and a straight course in God. He found his path made easy in God’s will. So when we are buffeted by life, or go through storms of faith, we should hold tight to our own understanding that God has not abandoned us, and that nothing in the disjointed nature of living, or our ups and downs of faith, can defeat us. Even in the moments when we too feel that God might have forsaken us, it is only our human frailty speaking, and just as God had not abandoned Jesus on the cross... He has not forsaken us now.
“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."”Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV
Satan has many weapons and snares; each diabolically designed to draw us away from God. He has made pacts, and alliances with those he had lured to him, or not yet heard the saving Gospel of Christ, in an attempt to use them against us, but we are not to hate, or lose heart. We are to remain focused on the Word of God, and keep our eyes affixed on truth we find on the cross. Although we can be ridiculed, beaten, and all our earthly belongings taken from us by those who covet our joy and success in life, none can take our faith that is the true wellspring of our joy.
“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"”Hebrews 13:5-6 ESV
Our lives are full of suffering, and the people who surround us will be slaves to their nature, as they attempt to enslave us as well to those things they serve, like the love of money, or the pleasures of the body, but do not lose sight of the Cross, or let your eyes be drawn away from the Word of God. Look from your own cross with forgiveness, and know that you will never be abandoned... never forsaken.
“If we take the time to listen, in simple childlike humility, to these words as the truth of God, the confidence will come: As surely as I am in Christ, I will also, day by day, be established in Him.” - Andrew Murray
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your constant and everlasting presence. Thank you Lord for being at my side, even when I am in the midst of my suffering and doubts you never forsake me, and you strengthen me in my forgiveness of others. My confidence in you pours joy from my faith like wine, and although I might lose all the treasures of the world at the hands of he who rules it, I will gain untold eternal treasure in so doing. I will Come joyful and triumphant to your table Father, and find all that I once thought was important and immense, was not even a twinkle in to your eye... it was as fleeting as a dream that once awakened from was forgotten, and was no more. I praise your name, and your faithfulness Holy Father, and place my trust in you always. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you, and forever to be praised.
Rich Forbes