Is It In You To Finish? (Part 2)

To read part 1 of this entry, click here.

This is a continuation of the topic "A God-Ordained Hurt" with the subtopic "A Monumental Blessing".

When I speak of a God-ordained hurt, I’m not talking about those situations where you were disobedient and the circumstances that followed due to your disobedience. I’m talking about those situations where either: 1) you have absolutely no control of what’s going on in your life (take the stories of Job or Joseph as an example), or 2) those situations in which you believed you were being obedient unto God but your circumstances are not matching up to God’s Word. What’s worse in such conditions is the knowledge that you have the ability to change things and turn them around. To use a statement I heard a minister say, “Nothing requires more trust than submitting to suffering that you believe in your heart is the will of God when you know that you could take some action yourself and relieve that suffering.” In such times can you use the power that God has placed in you to remain there or will you run? There’s a quote that says, “Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.” Can you dare to be different and wait for the monumental blessing that is to come if you stand in the midst of a God-ordained hurt?

The ultimate example of such a God-ordained hurt and of someone daring to stand through it is in Jesus and His death on the cross. If you would permit me, I would like to dramatize Jesus’ death on the cross, and I’m going to ask you to imagine with me the thoughts that could have been going through Jesus’ mind as He hung on the cross. I ask that you will pray for me, because I understand this imagining might be a stretch for it does not state in God’s Word all of the thoughts that ran through Jesus’ mind or all of His reactions while He hung on the cross. In this re-enactment I’ll be considering Jesus’ humanity, not His divinity, for in the English Standard Version of the Bible Heb 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Just to forewarn you, I’m going to be using parts of my life, so I don’t want you to be shocked by what you hear and miss out on the point of the illustration. Instead, think on the things in your life that Jesus might have been thinking about as He was nailed to and hung on the cross.


To read part 3 of this entry, click here.