Understood by Jesus

READ | Hebrews 4:14-15

People often try to comfort others who find themselves in a difficult season of life. But sometimes expressions of consolation create even more pain. For example, the well-intentioned words “I understand” feel empty if the speaker has never actually experienced the situation.

Yet we all long to feel understood. And it helps to know individuals who have endured circumstances similar to ours. Today’s passage reassures us that Jesus truly understands because He experienced struggles like ours.

The writer of Hebrews refers to Jesus as our High Priest. Each year the man serving in this capacity would enter the Holy of Holies, and there, in God’s presence, offer a sacrifice for sin. The priest was the Jewish people’s bridge to God. Christ not only took on this role, but He Himself also became the sacrifice when He died on the cross. Now He sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven and intercedes on our behalf.

That is tremendously encouraging, but even more than that, we know that Jesus truly understands our pain and our weakness. He faced the very temptations, needs, and hurts we experience. For example, a single parent who has suffered much pain can be assured that Christ also knew betrayal (when Judas turned against Him), isolation (when Peter denied knowing Him), and depression (when facing separation from His heavenly Father).

If you feel alone in the hardships you’re facing, recall Jesus’ trials, hurts, and temptations. You’ll find comfort in His understanding.


From: InTouch - Early Light Devotionals

You Are Not Your Own"

Do you not know that . . . you are not your own? —1 Corinthians 6:19

There is no such thing as a private life, or a place to hide in this world, for a man or woman who is intimately aware of and shares in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. God divides the private life of His saints and makes it a highway for the world on one hand and for Himself on the other. No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves. We are called into intimacy with the gospel, and things happen that appear to have nothing to do with us. But God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way. If you refuse, you will be of no value to God in His redemptive work in the world, but will be a hindrance and a stumbling block.

The first thing God does is get us grounded on strong reality and truth. He does this until our cares for ourselves individually have been brought into submission to His way for the purpose of His redemption. Why shouldn’t we experience heartbreak? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down at the door of God’s purpose and enter a slow death through self-pity. And all the so-called Christian sympathy of others helps us to our deathbed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, as if to say, "Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine." If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours?


From: RBC - Utmost For His Highest

A Second Chance

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
-Romans 3:23 (NIV)

THE aircraft carrier on which I serve recently crossed the International Date Line, which is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Traveling east across the date line, we moved the clocks ahead one hour and stepped back one day. In effect, we got to live an entire day over again. For those of us six months into a military deployment, it can feel exasperating to wake up and see that it's Tuesday - again! But I chose to look on the bright side: at least I could use this "second" Tuesday to avoid the mistakes I had made on the previous one.

How many of us wish we had the chance to go back in time and live some portion of our life over again, to be given a second chance? While we may not get to travel through time, we do have a second chance, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus was willing to lay down his life, we are now able to find forgiveness, to put our sins behind us, and to move ahead, knowing that God will not hold our past mistakes against us. Because of this, we have the ability to wake up each day unburdened, striving anew to live our lives according to God's purpose.


Prayer
Heavenly Father, help us remember that it's never too late to turn away from sin and toward you. We humbly ask for your forgiveness so that we may embrace the future with its opportunities to grow closer to you. Amen.


From: UpperRoom Devotionals - Will Moynahan

The Muck and the Mire

“God will show his mercy forever and ever to those who worship and serve him.”
Luke 1:50

For thirty-three years he would feel everything you and I have ever felt. He felt weak. He grew weary. He was afraid of failure. He was susceptible to wooing women. He got colds, burped, and had body odor. His feelings got hurt.

To think of Jesus in such a light is—well, it seems almost irreverent, doesn’t it? It’s not something we like to do; it’s uncomfortable. It is much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation. Clean the manure from around the manger. Wipe the sweat out of his eyes. Pretend he never snored or blew his nose or hit his thumb with a hammer.

He’s easier to stomach that way. There is something about keeping him divine that keeps him distant, packaged, predictable.

But don’t do it. For heaven’s sake, don’t. Let him be as human as he intended to be. Let him into the mire and muck of our world. For only if we let him in can he pull us out.


From: Max Lucado

No Fear

For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock.
Psalm 27:5, NIV


"No Fear" was a popular slogan back in the '90s.

I remember seeing auto decals with this inscription everywhere I went. Pickup trucks, sports cars, SUVs ... you name it and you would probably see "No Fear" displayed across the back window in some kind of "edgy" font.

I didn't know exactly (and still don't) what it meant, though. Did "no fear" connote a state of mind, as in living fearlessly? Or was it a marketing gimmick for some product line? Most likely the latter (especially in this day and age).

Now I haven't fully researched it out as of this writing, but if the thought is to live without fear, then I am all for that. And so, apparently, was David in Psalm 27:1-3 ...

The LORD is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh,
When my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear;
Though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.

Based on these verses, living a life of "no fear" all boils down to who or what is at the center of our lives. And this, in essence, will result in how we live. With fear or with "no fear."

In my life, I've found that the surest - and quickest - way to find out what I'm made of is during a time of crisis or trial. That's when the outside pressures of this world squeeze out what's holding me together on the inside. And it's either a stronghold that sustains or something that just causes me to crumble.

About nine years ago, I faced a time such as this when I was laid off from my job. It was the first time I had ever experienced this in my career, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Employees were let go in three waves, and I knew I was going to be in the final one.

People were upset. They were afraid. And they were angry that their worlds had been disrupted. Their sources of income were gone, and they would now have to figure out what to do next for themselves and their families. They had placed their trust in a company that had decided to unexpectedly shut down and was offering no future for any of its employees.

For some strange reason, though, I did not fully share these sentiments. I didn't know what the road ahead would hold for me, but somehow I knew that the Lord would take care of me and that he would show me what to do next. As someone who struggles with anxiety, this was out of the ordinary for me to immediately have such a peace. Surely, it passed all of my understanding.

Well, when the third round of lay-offs came, sure enough I received my pink slip. The company would officially close at the end of the calendar year, and so I was asked to help shut it down along with the other last handful of employees.

As we began notifying our business contacts of the company's demise and getting rid of files and figuring out what to do with leftover office furniture and computer equipment, news came in that a different company wanted to buy part of our dying company.

And you know what? This "hero" company wanted to employ me and about five other people who had been laid off as well! So, in about a week's time - from being laid off to accepting new jobs - the Lord had taken me from unemployed to employed. How could I have known this was going to happen?

The Lord was surely with me in this "day of trouble" and had kept me "safe in his dwelling." And he is the one who (miraculously) enabled me to live with "no fear."



From: CrossWalk Devotionals

SHACKLED BY MAN...SET FREE BY GOD

"And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely ... And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed." Acts 16:23,26

The believer has the joy of knowing that his life is "hid in Christ." He has the choice of living day by day with confidence in the ONE who orders his steps and will direct him in the paths of righteousness for HIS name's sake. There are no circumstances in his life that have not first passed through the permissive will of God, and are formed in the providence of His plan and purpose.

In the life of a believer, who is committed and loyal to God, there is no such thing as chance or luck. God often brings us into circumstances that we do not understand, among people that we do not know, into places we have never been that we may trust him in these strange encounters, and bring them before Him in unwavering faith, that the Holy Spirit may work to glorify God through it all. God does not ask us to understand these circumstances, but to trust Him in them, and see His mighty power being manifested in ways beyond our finite resources.

Such encounters challenge the depth of our faith which must be tried before the reality of faith is actual. God brings these circumstances into our lives for many reasons. One that is foremost is to turn our "head faith" into a personal possession. In this, we get constant opposition from Satan himself. It is not a fight sometimes, but always. But God has a purpose in these trying circumstances. He wants to show us that the nature of faith is to make its object real. Faith is the whole man rightly related to God, that activates an unwavering trust in Him, in whatever circumstance he finds himself by the power of the Holy Spirit. God wants the focus of our faith to be centered in Him, regardless of the measure of our circumstances, large or small. The smallest detail in which we follow in simple obedience and child-like faith has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it.

Paul and Silas had just seen God's power manifested through them, in casting out the evil spirit that possessed a young girl. They were falsely accused, stripped, beaten, unjustly thrown into prison, and their feet bound fast to the stocks. This was the unjust reaction of ungodly men, shackled by man. What a scene! They had every human right to complain, cry out for justice, and plead for mercy. Their eyes were not fixed upon their circumstances, for they knew God was in control, and in His providential care, permitted this encounter to reach one man, the jailer...and then, his whole family.

Look at the scene. Paul and Silas were a pitifully beaten sight of humanity, and what was their response? "At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them." Can you imagine what went through the minds of these prisoners as they heard Paul and Silas pray and praise God in word and song? But then, we see them set free by God. "The earthquake shook the prison, the doors opened, and everyone's bands were loosed." We may not be responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us: we can either allow them to defeat us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Paul said, "And in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). God has promised an overcoming spirit to all who will dare to trust Him! "But thanks be unto God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him." Shackled by man...set free by God!


From: Literature International Ministry - Ed Powell