With Us in Suffering and Joy (Lent 31, 2024)

God is with us in both suffering and joy. He feels our circumstances deeply.

Reading that passage from the perspective of Jesus, whatever we did for others, we did for Him.  Reading that passage from the perspective of the person who is hurting, we can see that Jesus feels it when we’re the ones who are hurting.  When we’re in pain, He feels it because He is Love, and we bear His Image.  He grieves with us, suffers with us, and rejoices with us when others minister to us in our pain.

Exercise:  Is there anyone in your circle of acquaintances that could use a friend right now? Looking at your life and circumstances, what types of things make it difficult in modern culture to “do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine?”  Do financial donations to organizations minister to others as a stand-in when circumstances are too remote for our personal involvement? What about danger? To what extent is the admonition to be “shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16) applicable here? Helping others is not a one-size-fits-all program but we each do what we can for the sake of Christ.

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Categories Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals | Tags: | Posted on March 20, 2024

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