What A Ride

“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

This afternoon I sat on the beach, watching my grandchildren, ride the waves.  They were not in very deep water but when the waves would come they would rise higher than them.  They would run into them.  There were times the waves would take them under.  Other times the waves would support them and their boards as they were on top, riding the waves.  It was a beautiful sight when this happened.  The waves, were the same as the ones that covered them.  The waves kept coming and they kept diving into the waves again and again.  I thought what is the difference.  It was not the waves, they were waiting for the big ones to come.  It was the way they confronted and experienced the waters.  Some would beat them up and some would take them riding high, but they did not give up.  The more practice they got the more they understood how not to be consumed by the ocean but have the waves actually lift them up and bring them to shore.  They were embracing the very thing that could defeat them.

These waves represent adversity to me.  How they keep coming into the life of the believer.  We can enter into the difficult times in our lives and ride the waves.  Or we can fight them and they will take us under.  In most cases we cannot stop suffering.  I can just decide will this swallow me up or am I choosing to let them teach me. The very thing that use to attempt to destroy me in insolation, bitterness, anger and resentment, lack of trusting God can be used to bring me to Him. Are we going to let the hard times and things we don't understand "beat us up"? Who is our God?  Who is in control? There is great glory to God when hard times come if we can overcome the very thing that use to be so defeating, so scary.  We persevere because He persevered for us.  His grace and mercy flood our very souls.

Jesus said on the cross, if it be your will take this cup from me, Father.  The cup Jesus chose to drink was our sin, suffering whether it be in relationships, in circumstances such as our health, our deformities, death, abuse, addiction, injustice, lack of faith, struggle with sin whether it is ours or those who sin against us, evil itself.

Trust Him with where you are right this minute. He has been there and is there with you now.  What ever has happened to you or is happening to you right this minute, Jesus knows how you feel and He has compassion.  There is no sin or suffering that He has not tasted, drank of, and realized through the cross.  The answer is to enter into Him by faith.  He said Father not my will but thy will be done.  Before Jesus drank of the cup it was like He experienced it, the pain, knowing what it would mean to take on the sins of the world, to be rejected by His Father, before it ever happened.  Instead of our sin consuming Christ, He consumed it.  He drank it.  We can now ride the waves of adversity and grow more like Him from them.  Suffering binds us together in deep unity and intimacy with Him. It is a beautiful thing when this happens.  What a ride!

"once we 'see' the depths of His love for us, as we taste this love, and as we see the purity, and strength that is found 'in' His love, we begin to become lovers".  Jim Puntney

We were promised sufferings, they were part of the program. We were even told, "Blessed Are They That Mourn" - C. S. Lewis

 Don't deny your suffering, don't run from it or harden your heart, don't be afraid to confront in love and mercy, to not allow sin towards you or others.  To speak and act on truth in Love.  Suffering will change you either for better or worse.  You will not remain the same. Remember His goodness, His love for you, even His discipline of you. He will teach you what true love really is.  Press into the very Spirit of God.  He may not take you out of hard circumstances or remove you from difficult people but maybe He will.  He will rescue you in the midst of it all, to Himself. There, He will guide you to understand the fullness and paradox of love.

 Christ was not removed from the cross but He was strengthen in it for a greater purpose.  To do the will of His Father. He thought we are worth the suffering.  Is He worth it to you?  Let Him show you how to love as He loves you.  Embrace the suffering, He embraces you.