I’ll be honest. I often fight being nice when I’m cranky, dying to my mood and choosing to show love instead. You too? Dying to myself doesn’t always feel joyful, and this is only my mood, not my very life!
BUT JESUS. Can you get your head around this? It was His joy to die. It says it right here. “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” (Hebrews 12:2 ) He endured death “with joy.” How? Why? To think that He even carried the cross over His shoulder up to Calvary, the lashes He suffered, oozing open wounds. His extreme agony and pain, waiting to die as He hung there. Joy? Where’s the joy? Where?
JOY WAS UP AHEAD. He could see the joy up ahead. It is was His Joy in knowing that His sacrifice would accomplish everything necessary to bring us back into relationship with Him and would have the power to secure our eternal future. The cross bridges the great divide. AND ALL FOR OBSTINATE CHILDREN. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8) To think that we weren’t even sweet children, we were hard headed and hard hearted. It’s the greatest love story every told. And to think He pursues us still, despite this ongoing tendency.
HOW DOES THIS HIT YOU?
BUT GOD. His actions reveal His heart. He who makes our hearts beat, was willing to die. He was most concerned with the end result. Winning our hearts is His greatest joy. Has He won yours?
Lord, steal our hearts and usher us into Your most astounding love; that we might continually see our ongoing need and that You are the forever answer, living in the joy of Your salvation. It’s Your greatest joy. Amen & Alleluia.
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Powerful message