“How am I going to get through this?”
We’ve all asked this question. Maybe you’re asking it right now?
It could be the death of a loved one, a conflict with your spouse, a broken heart from a breakup, the pain of watching your child suffer, loneliness, fatigue, bullying, or an addiction that you can’t seem to break. Sin and pain come in a startling variety of ways.
In the first few centuries of the church, suffering regularly came through physical persecution. The Romans felt a large portion of its downfall was due to Christians not worshiping the gods of old. With the threat of torture, they demanded Christian’s renounce Jesus. The extreme coercion included goring by bulls or savaging by dogs or roasting on red hot chairs of iron. Some recanted but many didn’t.
Concerning this, Tom Holland in his book Dominion writes, “The willingness of Christians to embrace excruciating tortures – which to those who sentenced them could only appear as lunacy – was founded on an awesome conviction: that their Saviour was by their side.”
The last words Jesus says to his disciples in the book of Matthew are, “I am with you always.” Christians for millennia have taken that seriously. That Jesus is with you, through the Holy Spirit, at all times, in all places. There is nowhere you can go that he will not be with you.
Like a cobblers peg on a sock as you go through a field, he’s with you. Like a piece of gum under the chair, he’s with you. Like a long-time friend on a walk around the block, he’s with you. Like the shepherd in the valley of the shadow of death, he’s with you. Like the “King of the Jews” crucified next to the penitent thief, he’s with you.
“So, how are you going to get through this?”
With the Saviour by your side in his unfailing love.
We’ve all asked this question. Maybe you’re asking it right now?
It could be the death of a loved one, a conflict with your spouse, a broken heart from a breakup, the pain of watching your child suffer, loneliness, fatigue, bullying, or an addiction that you can’t seem to break. Sin and pain come in a startling variety of ways.
In the first few centuries of the church, suffering regularly came through physical persecution. The Romans felt a large portion of its downfall was due to Christians not worshiping the gods of old. With the threat of torture, they demanded Christian’s renounce Jesus. The extreme coercion included goring by bulls or savaging by dogs or roasting on red hot chairs of iron. Some recanted but many didn’t.
Concerning this, Tom Holland in his book Dominion writes, “The willingness of Christians to embrace excruciating tortures – which to those who sentenced them could only appear as lunacy – was founded on an awesome conviction: that their Saviour was by their side.”
The last words Jesus says to his disciples in the book of Matthew are, “I am with you always.” Christians for millennia have taken that seriously. That Jesus is with you, through the Holy Spirit, at all times, in all places. There is nowhere you can go that he will not be with you.
Like a cobblers peg on a sock as you go through a field, he’s with you. Like a piece of gum under the chair, he’s with you. Like a long-time friend on a walk around the block, he’s with you. Like the shepherd in the valley of the shadow of death, he’s with you. Like the “King of the Jews” crucified next to the penitent thief, he’s with you.
“So, how are you going to get through this?”
With the Saviour by your side in his unfailing love.