Friday 31 Aug 2012

Friday Reading: Mark 15:33-34

Key Verse: Mark 15:34
34  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Devotion:
How many times have you complained about God not being there for you or complained that God has let you down? Let’s be honest now… I know that I have complained in my heart, not just for me but on behalf of others as well! So what on earth takes us to the point where we want to complain about our God, our Perfect God, our Omniscient God, our Omnipresent God?

I think the best illustration for this is the point where Jesus took on the sin of the whole world and God’s response was firm, deliberate but loving. Jesus’ words were exactly what we may want to cry out “God, why have you forsaken me?” These words were not just a sad reflection on those last hours of Christ’s life but rather words that would be remembered by so many and told over and over again; words that would touch many people’s hearts throughout the years and words that would be able to give us the encouragement that we need to get us back to the point where we can see that God will never leave us and that His love for us continues throughout everything.

How many times have you been told off by your parents? Did you receive some sort of punishment? How many of those times were you sent to your room where nobody would be able to see you and where you would not see anyone else? What happened to those times where you were so embarrassed about doing something wrong that you fled to your room all by yourself just so that you could hide away? Putting those two thoughts together gets us a look at what was happening to Jesus on the cross. God was shutting the door so that He would not have to look upon the sight of His Perfect Son taking on the sin of the world! Jesus knew it had to be done but before He went through with it He pleaded to God to see if there was any other way for this to be accomplished so you can understand that He would not want everyone staring at Him after He took on the sin!

God is Just and Holy. He cannot abide sin. If we are going to run off into sin then we should not expect Him to follow us. If we are going to harbour bad thoughts about others should we expect God to support us? We may not like what others do but that is just because we are different. Embrace difference because God made us that way!

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel let down?

Are you actually letting God down?