SUNDAY JULY 20, 2014.
'...If
it is possible, let this cup...be taken away from Me...' Matthew 26:39 NLT
Made Perfect through Suffering (2)
Sometimes in Christian circles when somebody is
suffering we blame it on hidden sin. That way we think it can't happen to us
because we're not guilty of that particular problem, right? How shortsighted,
given the fact that Jesus, the sinless Son of God, exemplified suffering! In
Gethsemane He didn't stand up with false bravado and say, 'Bring it on!' No,
'He...bowed...His face to the ground, praying, "My Father! If it is possible,
let this cup of suffering be taken away...Yet...Your will...be done, not
Mine."' Jesus took pain and showed us how to glorify God in it. One
Christian author observed: 'God never promised tornadoes would skip our houses
on the way to our pagan neighbors, and microbes would flee from Christian
bodies. We're not exempt from the tragedies of this world, just as God wasn't
exempt. In fact, Peter earned the strongest rebuke when he protested against
the need for Christ to suffer. [Jesus said, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are a
stumbling block...you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of
men... If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself...take up his cross
and follow Me...whoever wants to save his life will lose it...whoever loses his
life for Me will find it.' (Matthew 16:23-25 NIV)] God took the worst thing
that could happen-the execution of His innocent Son-and turned it into the
final victory over death...He turned the design of evil into the service of
good.' It's by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5), and by His weakness that
we are made strong.
Taken
from the Word for You Today Devotional
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