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Apr 20, 2024 06:00am

Saturdays

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Today, I am praying for the ones who are hurting so deeply it escapes words, for those who are carrying a burden whose invisible heaviness outweighs physical scales, and for those who have a relentless cry on repeat inside their hearts. I pray you offer your deep, guttural utterances to His ears; that you would trust Him to carry that weighty burden; that His voice would interrupt that internal repeat and bring supernatural soothing, life-giving lightness, and peace that surpasses any understanding you could conjure up on your own.

I imagine the deep darkness of that Saturday after Christ died on the cross, the heaviness that hung thick in the air. But…Sunday came…Christ arose victorious. He defeated sin, darkness, and death. He did that to heal every hurt, lift the heaviest of heavies in our hearts, and give us life- true, joy-filled, abundant life with Him, forever. He hears your heart’s cry. He wants you to bring it to Him. And, that same redeeming, overwhelming, incomprehensible, I-don’t-deserve-it-love He displayed about 2,000 years ago was meant for you. Pour your heart out to Him. Let Him be the King of your heart. Let Him carry you through your “Saturdays,” and decide now to give all of your days to Him.

I think the Bible shows us, time and time again, how Paul lived his life with this mindset of living out his faith and resting in God’s sovereignty wherever life took him. The Message version of Philippians 1:19-21 presents the message Paul sent while in what could have been a very “Saturday-chapter” in his life, while he was imprisoned, in a unique way:

” And I’m going to keep that celebration going because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a platform! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his prize. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose. “

Life versus even more life, freedom from the death we deserve, that’s what Jesus offers. You can’t lose!