During Bible Study this morning, i was sipping my coffee and was reading Romans 8 when i came upon this verse—“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:17)
we like the first part of that verse, but tend to skip that last part—i mean who likes to suffer??? No one!!! And yet we are told that we must walk as Jesus walked. (1 John 2:6)
So how did Jesus walk? Sarcastically, we could say He put one foot in front of the other. But realistically, Jesus walked in full dependence upon God the Father. Jesus said that He could do nothing on His own, but only that which He saw the Father do. (John 5:19-47) And yet we see Jesus doing things that we would never walk into of our own choice. Isaiah 53 describes the suffering Servant and foreshadows the horrible cruelty that Jesus would have to endure on our behalf.
Jesus suffered through betrayal, deceit, rejection, unbelief from others, horrible crucifixion and death, separation (albeit temporary) from the Father, cruelty from others and so much more. All without a word of complaint. And yet we go through one event and cry out that it’s not fair! We call God cruel and unloving and say He doesn’t care about us. “What kind of loving God would allow this!!” we scream out.
And yet none of us have suffered like Jesus. Never once did Jesus doubt the Father’s love and plan for Him. Why? Because His relationship with the Father superceded any circumstance He endured. He KNEW the Father loved Him. He KNEW that this was God’s plan and He KNEW that greater things were in store for Him after He walked this path. He obeyed the Father, even to the point of death because pleasing the Father was His ultimate goal. He carried His cross, no matter how painful it was, walked the path laid out for Him and came out triumphant!!
The next time our circumstances threaten to overwhelm us and tempt us to question the Father, may we remember Jesus!!
3j2pyc 