July 30, 2009: I must question if my recent studies of Job are to prepare me for some deep pain ahead. Yet I do not walk in fear of the pain, but I pray, Lord, that Your will would be done, that I would delight in Your ways, whatever that may be – and most of all, I want the blessing of knowing You in a greater way as I experience pain more deeply.

“And I will give thee the treasures of darkness…that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” (Isaiah 45:3) The darkness that pervaded Judah and Jerusalem at the time of Isaiah’s prophecies was heavy. But the message of Isaiah rang out with hope that the dark is always darkest right before the dawn. It would get blacker, the future would be even more dismal, but then, amidst the darkness, the Messiah would burst forth in glorious light, bringing redemption and salvation.

Psalm 100:5 – “For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever; and His faithfulness to all generations.” Interesting, I thought, since the few days preceding had weighed increasingly heavy on my heart. A little black rain cloud was gathering over my soul and I knew not how to regain proper orientation.

Hebrews 3:13 reads, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”[2] The surrounding verses tell of Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness, the Lord’s promise that they would not enter into His rest, and the exhortation to Christians to take care lest they also fall away from the living God (Hebrews 3:7-18). The chapter closes with verse 18, “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

Stressed? Need a Break?
This passage contains a progression of five steps, through which we are enabled to move from our current position of stress and worry into a place of complete rest. This is not a system of what we must do to be successful, rather it is a chronicle of knowing who God is and what He has done in order to give us freedom and victory in Him.

Love, and life itself, is all about the cross. Our position is found when the cross tells us who we are. The same cross changes our perspective when it interprets the world we inhabit and transforms our view of people. Finally, the cross gives us our life purpose.