Have you ever felt all alone in your journey? Have your hands felt tied as you waited helplessly for life to unfold?  Has your heart felt so heavy you are amazed you can even get out of bed every morning?  How do you get past such a season of your life? May I share with you what God taught me?

When Jesus was on the cross, Mark 15:34 tells us that He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” NIV.  At a time when Jesus had been physically beaten, emotionally wrung out, and fatigued beyond words, He experienced the last straw in feeling God’s utter absence.  This was at a time when Peter who declared so assertively in Matt 26:33, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will”, is nowhere to be seen. The Apostle John is standing with Jesus’ mother in front of the cross but has nothing to offer Jesus beside his own emotional need. Jesus ends up taking care of John and his mother by telling them to take care of each other.  Oh Faithful One, I wonder if you are in a place in life where you feel all poured out but you are still in the middle of a journey that is continuing. How do you keep going in a way that will result in victory?

Let’s observe how Jesus got through the doom and gloom of His circumstances.

Mark 15:37 records, “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.” NIV. What loud cry did Jesus cry? Something took place inside of Jesus that was a breakthrough and was expressed in the words that came out of His mouth. Luke 23:46 tells us the content of Jesus’ loud cry. The content was recorded as follows: Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

These last words were a profession of faith in a God who will not forsake those who trust in Him.

NIV.  At a time when Peter who professed to never forsake him was nowhere to be found, and John was totally incapable of offering any tangible help, and God Himself felt distant, Jesus made the most important choice of His life. He chose to trust God and to commit His spirit to God’s care.  These last words were a profession of faith in a God who will not forsake those who trust in Him.  God received Jesus’ life of faith as the life that fulfilled all the requirements of the Law.  God’s one and only son by His obedience and complete faith in the Father up to His very last breath paid in full the penalty of all the sins of the world. In exchange for all the stories of all failures, God then offers us the new beginning of Jesus’ story of the resurrection. The resurrection is evidence that God has the power to offer us a new chapter for our lives. The question is, will we write the words “The End” to our chapters and failures and receive God’s new chapter for His life of success and victory to be expressed through us?

I don’t know where you are in your life but instead of feeling like you cannot control the events that are happening to you, will you take control by making the decision to cling to God as the foundational relationship of your life?  Even when God may feel absent, trust in His Word and in His character to never leave nor forsake those who trust in Him. In the midst of your Calvary, you will find God resurrecting new life. In what the world may perceive as death, God will burst open the tombs and reveal His miracle. This year, I pray you will make the choice to allow your story to die and trust in God’s power to write the beginning of His new story in your life that will astound the world. Always remember that for there to be a resurrection, there had to be a Calvary. For God to bring forth new life, you must trust God with a death.  What needs to die in you?  I wonder if there is a relationship, a business, a project you need to lay down at God’s feet and trust Him with the beginning of a new story?

I pray this devotion encouraged you in a special way. When I pray for you, I hear a victory song. I believe in you because I believe in the power of God’s Word in you as you put His Word into action.

Love, Anita