Jesus Can Identify With Your Pain
Leviticus 2:4
4‘And if you bring as an offering a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.
Private pains, deep hurts, shameful addictions. You may think that nobody understands what you are going through, but God does. He can identify with all your pains and is able to help you. (Hebrews 2:18, 4:15)
In the Old Testament, the grain offering brought to God speaks of Jesus’ life on earth. The fine flour, which the grain offering is made with, is flour that has been pounded, ground, beaten and sifted through to get it consistently even and fine. Therefore, it typifies the humanity and sufferings of Jesus.
One of the ways the Jewish women prepared the grain offering was to bake it. The baking done in the depths of the oven speaks of the “hidden” sufferings that Jesus went though. I believe that Jesus faced sufferings that we cannot fully understand. Even as a young boy, He must have gone through sufferings that prepared Him to die for all humanity at the cross. And during His ministry years, it must have grieved Him when time and time again, He found unbelief not just in the people around Him, but even in His disciples.
Jesus also suffered at the hands of men — slanderers who misunderstood Him. Once, the Pharisees insinuated that He was born out of wedlock because His mother was with child before she married Joseph. (John 8:39, 41) That scandalous remark, probably not the first, must have hurt Him.
Consider also the temptations He faced. There were not only three. God’s Word says that He was tempted for 40 days! (Luke 4:2) Not all the temptations were recorded. Those 40 days must have tried Him sorely.
What do all these mean?
My friend, Jesus went through all those temptations and sufferings for you, yet He did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15) There is no temptation or suffering that you are going through that He cannot identify with. So come to His throne of grace today and receive His superabounding grace to face and overcome those trials in your life!
© Copyright Joseph Prince, 2006. All rights reserved.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version ®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2006–2009 New Creation Church
Feed your FAITH and your doubts will STARVE.
Showing posts with label pains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pains. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Don’t Let Your Past Rob You
Philippians 3:13–14
13Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Are you living a life of regrets thinking, “If only…”? “If only I had that college education… If only I had married the right girl… If only I had taken up the other job… If only I had not made that stupid mistake…”
Is your past robbing you of the joy of today? Then forget your past!
You might say, “But Pastor Prince, you do not know what I have done in the past!”
Consider Paul. If the devil had anything to bring against Paul, it would be reminders of how he had persecuted the early church and caused the deaths of many, including Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Paul had done horrendous things that were hard for him to forget. But he had such a revelation of God’s awesome forgiveness that he could say, “forgetting those things which are behind… I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.
Beloved, God has forgiven you of all your sins. He has completely forgiven you and declared, “Your sins and lawless deeds, I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17)
Like Paul, you can forget your past, the wrongs you have done and the hurts you have caused others or been through yourself. God can take the tears of yesterday and transform them into the miracles of tomorrow. He can restore to you in all abundance what you have lost. He can cause all things, even the painful events of your past, to work together for your good. (Romans 8:28)
God’s Word says, “The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 58:8) His glory will cover your past. Wherever you go, His glory covers your past. It is no longer the same past that you know of because His glory has descended on it. Your past is past. It has been wiped out. It is gone! So don’t let your past rob you of today’s joy any longer!
13Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Are you living a life of regrets thinking, “If only…”? “If only I had that college education… If only I had married the right girl… If only I had taken up the other job… If only I had not made that stupid mistake…”
Is your past robbing you of the joy of today? Then forget your past!
You might say, “But Pastor Prince, you do not know what I have done in the past!”
Consider Paul. If the devil had anything to bring against Paul, it would be reminders of how he had persecuted the early church and caused the deaths of many, including Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Paul had done horrendous things that were hard for him to forget. But he had such a revelation of God’s awesome forgiveness that he could say, “forgetting those things which are behind… I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.
Beloved, God has forgiven you of all your sins. He has completely forgiven you and declared, “Your sins and lawless deeds, I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17)
Like Paul, you can forget your past, the wrongs you have done and the hurts you have caused others or been through yourself. God can take the tears of yesterday and transform them into the miracles of tomorrow. He can restore to you in all abundance what you have lost. He can cause all things, even the painful events of your past, to work together for your good. (Romans 8:28)
God’s Word says, “The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 58:8) His glory will cover your past. Wherever you go, His glory covers your past. It is no longer the same past that you know of because His glory has descended on it. Your past is past. It has been wiped out. It is gone! So don’t let your past rob you of today’s joy any longer!
Monday, June 16, 2008
God Says ‘I Will’ In The New Covenant
Hebrews 8:10,12
10… I will put My laws in their mind… I will be their God… 12… I will be merciful to their unrighteousness… their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
You may be feeling stressed at work today because your boss just gave you a list of things to do. Maybe he told you, “You have to type this letter. You have to meet this client. You have to write this report. You have to…” Wouldn’t it be nice if your boss had, instead, said, “I will type this letter for you. I will meet this client for you. I will write this report for you. I will…”?
Well, your boss may not be that gracious, but your Father in heaven is! When He found fault with the old covenant and established the new covenant (Hebrews 8:7–8) in His Son’s blood, His “Thou shalls” became “I wills”.
You see, under the old covenant, the focus is on you — Thou shall not… Thou shall not… Thou shall not… It is about your performance, your obedience, your works. But under the new covenant, God says, “I will put My laws in their mind… I will be their God… I will be merciful to their unrighteousness… their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” It is no longer you working for God, but God working for you, in you and through you!
“Isn’t there something for me to do?” you may ask.
My friend, the only thing for you to do is to believe God’s “I wills”. The more you believe His “I wills” or promises, the more you will see His heart for you and the more your faith will grow.
It is foolish for me to just tell you, “Come on, man, have faith!” You will still not have faith because I am not giving you anything to build faith in you. But if I were to tell you all about what God says He will do for you, faith will arise in your heart. Faith is a response to knowing what God says He will do for you.
So the best thing you can “do” under the new covenant is to not focus on what you must do for God, but what God says He will do for you!
10… I will put My laws in their mind… I will be their God… 12… I will be merciful to their unrighteousness… their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
You may be feeling stressed at work today because your boss just gave you a list of things to do. Maybe he told you, “You have to type this letter. You have to meet this client. You have to write this report. You have to…” Wouldn’t it be nice if your boss had, instead, said, “I will type this letter for you. I will meet this client for you. I will write this report for you. I will…”?
Well, your boss may not be that gracious, but your Father in heaven is! When He found fault with the old covenant and established the new covenant (Hebrews 8:7–8) in His Son’s blood, His “Thou shalls” became “I wills”.
You see, under the old covenant, the focus is on you — Thou shall not… Thou shall not… Thou shall not… It is about your performance, your obedience, your works. But under the new covenant, God says, “I will put My laws in their mind… I will be their God… I will be merciful to their unrighteousness… their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” It is no longer you working for God, but God working for you, in you and through you!
“Isn’t there something for me to do?” you may ask.
My friend, the only thing for you to do is to believe God’s “I wills”. The more you believe His “I wills” or promises, the more you will see His heart for you and the more your faith will grow.
It is foolish for me to just tell you, “Come on, man, have faith!” You will still not have faith because I am not giving you anything to build faith in you. But if I were to tell you all about what God says He will do for you, faith will arise in your heart. Faith is a response to knowing what God says He will do for you.
So the best thing you can “do” under the new covenant is to not focus on what you must do for God, but what God says He will do for you!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Feelin better...
It's a good day today!
Feel so much better now..We have talked it out and hopefully
things will be great!
We have to move on...
I was able to hold down my pride and for once, settled everything
all for JESUS' sake..not mine.
I have put aside my pains and hurt.
Surprisingly, it ended well:)
Cannot say a word.
Yeah! When you trust in Jesus...you can't help but be dumbstrucked! lolx!
Everything happens too fast ...
Some changes may be painful, hurtful and devastating but it's all for good
and brand new things to come!
I feel a thorn has been pulled out of me-- setting me victoriously FREE!!!
Halleluyah!
Feel so much better now..We have talked it out and hopefully
things will be great!
We have to move on...
I was able to hold down my pride and for once, settled everything
all for JESUS' sake..not mine.
I have put aside my pains and hurt.
Surprisingly, it ended well:)
Cannot say a word.
Yeah! When you trust in Jesus...you can't help but be dumbstrucked! lolx!
Everything happens too fast ...
Some changes may be painful, hurtful and devastating but it's all for good
and brand new things to come!
I feel a thorn has been pulled out of me-- setting me victoriously FREE!!!
Halleluyah!
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