Be encouraged!

As I was reading John this morning where some of Christ’s followers came to take His body to anoint it with spices and to bind it with linen – as was the Jewish custom.

I wondered what would have been going through their minds as they were handling His body. It was lifeless, butchered, a mere corpse. There would have been no sign of anybody at home, no obvious hope that it would live and breathe again.  They must have felt so confused and discouraged, especially after all the hope that they had placed in their Saviour while He walked with them. I imagine that it was a very hard and dark hour for their soul.

And then I started thinking about our own journeys - how we also come across those seasons in life where we don’t find, or sense the life of the Lord in our midst. We often feel lost or alone in the dark, hopeless, confused, wondering all the while where God could possibly be in all of this mess?  And it is not uncommon to question and to complain about why He is not here helping us or rescuing is?

We know from Scripture that while these men were wrapping the Lords body in cloth, the Lord was not idle but was in fact still going about His Father’s business, this time enforcing His victory in the hidden realms!

So be encouraged.  You may feel alone, lost, confused, or abandoned.  Do not look with your physical eyes at the decaying, lifeless mess all around you. Remember Him who called you by name, who called you to Himself and who promises to finish what He started.  He is working in ways unfathomable, in the invisible realms to prepare a place for you, to restore you, to reveal Himself through you and to unfortunately prepare you for even darker days ahead.

msf