As I was listening to a sermon via the radio the other day, a scripture that the pastor was sharing caught my attention. He was reading from Matthew 28 where the angel appeared to Mary and Mary Magdalene after Christ’s resurrection. I’m going to shorten this passage here to illustrate the words that caught my attention. “Do not be afraid…He is going before you…”
Yes, I realize that I’ve taken this whole passage completely out of context, but it spoke to me at a moment in my own life that I needed to hear it. Like many people in America right now, the corporate downsizing seizing many businesses across our country has hit our home. If you aren’t in the same boat right now, I’ll bet you know someone that is. At a time where in our humanity we might be panicked and wondering how we’ll make it, we have a peace and assurance that we don’t need to panic at all; He is going before us, and just like He met up with the disciples at the appointed time and place in Galilee that day so long ago, we know that at the appointed time and place for us, the right job is going to be revealed that will provide a new place to serve as well provide for our family.
I’ve thought often through the last few weeks about Christ’s words on the cross, “It is finished”. As I ponder those words, I find strength in knowing that His words reach far beyond the miracle of finishing our redemption at Calvary. As a Christ-follower, I live with the assurance that His words apply to all aspects of our lives. Whatever I am facing today, with God it is already finished. The longer I live, the more I realize that walking by faith means knowing that whatever the circumstance, living in a place of complete surrender to His leading is the only place to be. When blinded to the next step in the road, in a state of confusion as to where we’re going, I have often joked that “With God, I’m on a “need-to-know” basis, and apparently right now He doesn’t think I need to know!” But this I do know. It is already finished and He is going before us to open that next divinely appointed door that will be ours to walk through.
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. Jeremiah 29:11
I don’t know how people live without the Lord; I am just so grateful that we don’t have to.
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