[ Previous Page ]     [ Next Page ]        Page:

I see you sitting there. Your legs are crossed; your arms are wrapped around you; your shoulders hunch over just a little as if to protect yourself. While you participate some in the conversation, you rarely make eye contact; and when you smile, it kind of slides out one side of your mouth. You are mostly quiet.

I know you think that no one notices. And probably there are not very many who would. But I see the truth, just as plainly as if you had a red light flashing on your forehead. I see your heart -- full to the brim with hurt upon hurt, upon hurt, upon hurt. You see, I know that heart. I've had it too.

I see the pain oozing through the cracks in the façade you've built so carefully. I know what's behind the shutters that hide your eyes and the door that is firmly shut before your heart. I know those shutters and doors are there, not to keep people out, but to keep the pain hidden inside. I know that the reason they are kept so tightly closed is because you're afraid that if you ever let them open, even a crack, you might accidentally unleash a geyser that would overwhelm, and maybe even kill you. And you're afraid that if you ever opened those restraints you could never get them closed again and you might find out there were no answers or relief for your pain.

Precious Friend, there is a way! There is a way to trade your pain for joy. There is a way to have healing for the hurts that have wounded you so deeply. Let me ask you, have you been despised and rejected by those close to you? Do you have sorrow in your heart for loss after loss -- grief that doesn't seem to ever get better? Jesus has made a way; and it's guaranteed effective if you'll just dare to reach out to Him for it. Those aren't just words. It is a fact.

The Word says that Jesus bore our grief and carried our sorrows (Is. 53:4). It literally means what it says. Think about it. One ordinary day, an ordinary man faced an enormous challenge. That day He was sentenced to die, though He had done no wrong. He felt every blow as men hit him, ripped out his beard, slammed thorns through the skin around his head. He suffered the shame of public nakedness as his clothing was taken from Him. And then -- He was laid down on a wooden cross and a man with a hammer bent over him to pound spikes through His hands. What do you think He thought as He looked over at His hand and anticipated the pain coming in just a few seconds? What would you have done on that day - unjustly accused and brutally mistreated? Would you have walked away? I would have. But Jesus didn't. And there was only one reason. His love was stronger than the pain.

But Jesus' greatest pain was still ahead. As He was lifted up on that cross, in that moment in time, God placed on His shoulders every sin that has ever been committed and all that will ever be committed throughout all of time. Jesus, who had never sinned, suddenly took on Himself the full weight, guilt and condemnation for it all. How do you think He felt about that? While He was fully God, He was fully man. He FELT the literal consequences of all that guilt. And He felt the absolute rejection of His Father for the first time in His life.

[ Previous Page ]     [ Next Page ]        Page:

This page has been displayed 3 times this month, 616 times since January 2, 2005 .