Nobody likes to be backed into a place with no way out; utterly hopeless, defeated, powerless, shaken to the left and right, up and down, left to die. It’s okay. One has been there—not for any wrong done, but FOR YOUR PEACE; your strength, your victory, your life. He rose in all-powerful everlasting strength. His strength and life-giving power is yours for the asking!
RELEVANCE
The LORD’s death was prophesied hundreds of years before it happened. God’s GRACE and GOOD NEWS came FIRST! It will manifest for you.
“Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.”
(Isaiah 53:4-5)
The apostle Paul experienced great despair. He also felt the anguish of those being persecuted, left without hope. Yet he had a profound revelation: the very same anguish of soul invokes the very treasure of the LORD’s strength that is promised to manifest itself in His greatest glory. That hope has the power to sustain us in our deepest afflictions. Let his words encourage you.
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:7-11).
REFLECT AND RELATE
God is always watching us. At the time we least expect it the LORD shows up. Are you ready? What would you do if you knew He was on His way?
REFERENCES
Malachi 3:1-3; Matthew 3:1-17; Acts 2:1-4; Acts 9:1-6