So God has us where He needs us. At least, that is how I feel about me and God.
Under no circumstances will I ever feel I’ve figured it all out or even have it right. What I hope for, what I pray for, and what I believe is that God is good with me despite my failings and my faults. Why do I think that? Jesus demonstrated this in His ministry. The people He embraced were indeed flawed. Even Peter, right through the crucification, having witnessed all that he did was a failure.
Imagine that you walk on water, see a transfigured Jesus, and witness numerous miracles. However, when that same fellow that you know is the Messiah is arrested and about to be murdered, you deny Him. You run. He even told you that you would deny Him. But after that, you will be a cornerstone for God. You, after what you go through, when you finally figure out it isn’t about here, will become that essential key to many around you.
Peter needed to be a failure in faith through it all until it became so clear to him that he was all in. Paul was the same way. Thomas, the same way. Plenty of others and perhaps you and me as well.
The point here is that many of us are imperfect. We will never fully get it right. That is where God and His mercy on us leads us to where He needs us to be. He is willing to give us as many second chances as we need. He knows that along that path, we will have struggles. We will have shame, regrets hurts, or maybe even things we just can’t let go of. However, He always wants us to crowd out those things with His things. No matter what, our place is with Him, and that someday, we will all be brought to Him.
Holy Week is when Jesus goes through His last days in His current normal. In a short week, He will become what the Father needed Him to become. He will go through what the Father needed Jesus to go through. At the back end of that, will be an eternity, and Jesus’s eternity was to symbolize how to love while we are here. How to put others before yourself and to take the hits and still love.
Holy Week focuses on eternity and how we will pass from here to a new place. At the same time, we are not sure what that fully entails. We know enough that it is a place we want to go to. Perhaps that is why we do go through the things we go through. That we, like Jesus, get prepared for our eternity.
As this Holy Week is upon us, maybe make more time to reflect on you and God. Open up to Him. Prepare yourself through prayer. Feel the love He has for you. Feel the hurts you might have now. Feel the shame. Feel the regrets. Feel any of those things that are holding you back. As you do that, feel the crack of the whip on our Saviors back. Feel the lonliness He felt when most of His friends ran away as He was beaten and eventually killed. But also, feel the love He had for them and for you as He rose from the dead, showed Himself in fully glory not beaten or bloody. Radiating. Shining such a brightness that you never saw before. Feel that feeling of knowing that no matter what your Heavenly Father has loved you forever and always no matter what. Now let us go and radiate the Holy Spirit He gave us as He changed it all.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the clarity of Holy Week. Thank you for the encounters that we see as your Son goes through what will become a new normal that changed everything. Father, allow us to understand what our new normal will be. Father, as we continue our journey toward home, help us demonstrate your love, mercy, grace, kindness, generosity, forgiveness, and every other aspect of being what you created us for. During this week, allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, and on Good Friday, may we feel the gravity of our sin as we think of the lashing Jesus took and the nails that were driven into His flesh. Let us feel the forgivness your have given us. Let us remember the love He demonstrated on that cross towards those around Him. Father, allow us as we take up our crosses, sufferings, and burdens to show love as He did. Please, Father, protect us from the enemy and life’s distractions as we walk with your Son this week. We pray this in the name of Jesus, our resurrected Savior and Lord. Amen.
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