That's the heading for this section of chapter four in You Can Change. Before we go any further in a discussion of the challenges we face, we need to establish this in our minds and reaffirm our faith.
Tim Chester cites Exodus 3:7-8, but I'm partial to Exodus 2:23-25 myself:
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.Of course, in the chapters that follow, it shows that God was not just aware of their plight, but he most certainly came to their rescue.
Jesus, God the Son, came to our rescue, but it's good for us to reflect on the fact that he did more than descend to earth, die on the cross, then return to heaven. He took on flesh so that he could die (yes!), but he also walked among us, living in our messed-up world with all the temptation and pain that goes with it.
Jesus is a remarkable Savior! He is not so strong that he could not identify with weakness, yet he did not become like us to the point that he could no longer save us.
It's too easy to think about our problems and start to get angry or defensive. When we are convinced that God knows, really knows, our struggles, then we can think more objectively about our difficulties and their temptations.
Can you think of a story of Jesus from Scripture that would show that he knows your kind of temptation or pain?
No comments:
Post a Comment