Last week I mentioned how this time of Lent, 40 days plus Sundays leading up to Easter, is a time for connecting with our Savior Jesus Christ. He is not dead, He is risen, and we can have a vibrant, real, ongoing relationship with Him.
There are two thoughts I have been meditating on over this past week. First, our two-year Bible reading plan has us in Job. Why? Why, God, why? Is it because we're in a pandemic? I asked God and He affirmed that these words and this turmoil of Job is meant for me/us to meditate on, just sitting in the presence of God as we do so. God is able to handle all of our troubles...when we bring them to Him.
Second, what does it mean practically to connect with Jesus? Many of us have a good grasp of the principles of the Gospel. We are good Christians and connected with Jesus in theory, but what does it look like daily?
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20
I know that the sufferings that we experience in this life are hints or ripples of the great suffering of God's judgment for our sin, judgment that we do not experience fully because Jesus did die for our sins. At the final judgment, He will stand and offer His sacrifice as evidence of us being redeemed. What we experience until that day, the ripples of The Fall, remind us of His grace for us.
If we fail to do a Quiet Time or spend time worshipping him on any given day, are we cast out of the Kingdom of God? We should be. Really. Failure to worship God is the first sin, a violation of the first commandment. If a day goes by that we do not live in worship of God, we've denied God His due. But by His grace, we are not cast aside. Actually, He still blesses us with sustenance and providence for life. Every day we live by His grace. We just don't see it. We don't think about it. We don't acknowledge it. And we take Him for granted.
Let us not live according to our flesh, pursuing comfort while forsaking our first love of Jesus Christ. Let us daily spend time talking, listening, praising, praying, and enjoying the grace that God has given us. And let us take the struggles as reminders that we have been crucified with Christ. We live by His death. We live by His grace. Every day.
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