I cracked open my journal yesterday morning and reread prayer cards I made
when I participated in a study a couple of years ago on Ephesians 6 , The Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer.
A quote I copied from Priscilla leapt off the page. “No matter what
your present circumstances or past entails, none of the ailments of life can
take away what the cross has given you.”
I paused a moment pondering again that truth during this Holy Week.
Now we have some ailments going on over here at our house with replaced knees, broken arms, and other aching parts. However, what Priscilla says is none of that takes away from what Jesus did for us. His strong, powerful, and mighty work is still in place.
A good thought when you’re feeling especially fragile and vulnerable.
Holy Week calls us to reflect, to ponder the work of Christ on our
behalf. “But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our
disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. . . ” (Isaiah 53:4 The Message).
ALL the things wrong with us, not some, not a few, but ALL.
We can reframe a sense of weakness in these words, “I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and in our fragility, we can embrace, “. . . that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the
dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus,
bringing you alive to himself” (Romans 8:11 The Message).
We can allow God to take any sense of despair, and filter it through, “Christ in you the hope of Glory.”
So, no matter what’s broken down, battered, torn up, and decrepit, what
Jesus has already done for us on the cross still stands. We have all that
resurrection power in us to buoy us up in the face of any present trouble.
No “ailments” can take it away from any of us. I'm underlining this in my journal. Twice.
Dear friends, have a blessed Holy Week and Easter. May His presence be
especially real to you during this Holy season.