Journey To The Cross | Easter & Lent Devotional Δείγμα

Never Forsaken

By Vaneetha Rendall Risner

It must have been devastatingly dark for the disciples on Holy Saturday. Earlier, in Gethsemane, “all the disciples deserted him and fled” (Matt. 26:56). On Friday, Jesus was executed. Now it was the day after the crucifixion. The day that the disciples had scattered, each to his own home (John 16:32). Each likely absorbed in his own grief, bewildered and afraid. It must have seemed like evil had won and that God was horrifyingly absent. 

Jesus had warned them about these things many times (see Matt. 16:21; John 12:20–36), but the disciples hadn’t comprehended his words. In their sorrow on that Saturday, did they remember the unchanging and faithful character of God? 

I know what it is to be absorbed in one’s own grief. Years ago, everything important to me unraveled in a period of months. My marriage, my health, and my children all seemed headed for disaster. In my sorrow, I felt utterly alone and abandoned even by God. I wanted to make sense of what God was doing, but I couldn’t. My story was still unfolding.

On Holy Saturday, the disciples were also in the middle of a story. On that day, everything looked hopelessly lost. They didn’t understand that the very next day, God would bring about the greatest, most spectacular event in history. Jesus would rise from the dead, just as he said. Everything the Lord had foretold would come true. God remained faithful to his word; his purposes could not and would not be thwarted.  

In our lives as well, God is faithful. He is faithful to his word and to his plans. He is doing immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20). At the time, we may not understand it, but our sorrow will one day turn to joy (John 16:20). 

God had not forsaken the disciples and he will never forsake us. His steadfast love will endure forever (Ps. 136). 

We are each in the middle of a story. We must trust God as it unfolds, knowing that he is ever faithful. As we rely upon God’s peace to overcome our doubts, we can rest on the rock-solid promise that because of the Cross, our story will have the happiest ending of all. One day we will see how our individual story fits into the magnificent story that God has been writing since the foundation of the world.

Vaneetha Rendall Risner is the author of The Scars That Have Shaped Me: How God Meets Us in Suffering and is a regular contributor to Desiring God.