Wednesday, March 20, 2013 -- 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 for that is the first step along the path to healthy living.  The next problem we encounter is that we want to see results before taking the risk of following God’s directions.  We want to pray a prayer and have everything immediately feel and look better.  We want people to be sorry for what they have done and to make things right for us before we choose to give away our hurt and resentment.  We want to do whatever needs doing to make our relationships and our circumstances what we long for them to be.  It doesn’t work that way.

God's way is simple but not always easy.  God invites us to look to His love FIRST and ALWAYS and then view everything else from that perspective.  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 the good until the difficult was resolved.   He now calls us to do the same thing. 

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)

We choose to do those things that God says works, trusting that God will make all things right in the end.  Unfortunately we often “give up on God” too soon.  The thought doesn’t change immediately.  A memory returns.  Our circumstances don’t change.  Something crashes or even ends, something that we were sure was going to be the answer for us.  Life is lonely and seemingly empty for a while.  Jesus’ word 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)).