Hosanna Restoration Church

Have you ever considered what the last week of Jesus’ life was like for Him? The high of arriving in the city with people cheering, and the low of knowing a terrible death was awaiting Him, must have been gut wrenching. “Well,” some might say, “He was God so it was no problem for Him.” But the scripture above proves this was not the case. We know that at one point He was in such distress that He asked God to let the cup pass from Him. He was a man and tempted in every way that we are.

Have you ever been going through a time when you knew that God was faithful and yet you wondered where He was? Do you go from one moment feeling confident to the next moment asking God if He is sure this is the way it is supposed to go? And then you tell yourself “it will be okay I trust the Lord.” Don’t you hate it when it just keeps going from peak to valley till you want to scream? Go ahead and scream. I think Jesus did. In fact I know He did. From the cross He cried out asking God why He had forsaken Him.

Sometimes it does hurt when we are doing the will of God. If it does, it is probably because something in our life is dying so that He can come to life in us. Just like Jesus who endured the cross with His eyes on the joy that was set before Him, we have to learn to keep our eyes on the joy too. Jesus joy was in seeing His father glorified. That did not keep Him from feeling the pain. It did not make Him free from doubts and accusations by the enemy. It did not keep Him from temptation or tribulation; it simply enabled Him to bare it all. And He did it all for us. He died so we could live. He suffered so that we could cast our cares on Him. He became poor so that we might be made rich. He was wounded so we could be healed. It made Him feel good, no matter how bad He felt.

It was not an easy trip that Jesus took on our behalf. And He never said that ours would be easy all the time either. He did guarantee that we would be more than conquerors if we stuck close to Him. I believe that was the same guarantee His Father gave Him. I believe He knew it would not be easy, but he also knew it was the only way and since it was the reason He came, He was determined to finish the course.

As Christians, we have to be determined to finish the course. Sometimes it will be like entering a city with everyone cheering and other times it will be like having someone close to us betray us. We may feel like we’ve been hung on a cross, but in all of this we have the words of Jesus telling us to be of good cheer because He has provided us the victory. He tells us to look to His example and know that no matter how bad it may seem, the victory is already won. Always be ready for your resurrection. You may be down but you will rise again. Just never let up because it takes a battle to have a victory.