13 Reasons To Keep GoingShembull

GOD IS STILL HERE

Have you ever had a friend – a true BFF – someone who always has your back? Someone you can depend on without fail?

So did the main character in this story. But, as it turns out, at the worst moment in his life, his BFF was suddenly and inexplicably absent. He slipped from life to death without any support or hope of rescue.

To call Jesus and God BFFs might sound sacrilegious, even blasphemous. But it’s accurate in the truest sense of that term. They existed together forever, as part of the trinity. And they will continue to exist together forever. Along with “the Helper,” they are the great three in one.

You probably know the passage: Jesus had been nailed to a Roman cross and was hanging there, struggling to breathe, rapidly losing the fight to live. Though He was God in the flesh, one with the Father, He found Himself alone, enduring unimaginable pain. 

“Eli, Eli, lema, sambachathani?”

He wasn’t just questioning His situation or begging for relief. He was crying out in complete despair: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Where was God? Where was the Father? Why had He disappeared in Jesus’ greatest time of need?

Jesus knew what He was getting into. We know this because He predicted His own death, and just hours before the crucifixion, He asked God to find another way to accomplish His will – something that didn’t involve torture and death.

Still, in that moment, as His life was about to depart from His body, Jesus questioned God’s methodology. 

If Jesus had those kinds of questions, we probably will too. Maybe you aren’t at the edge of death, but you might feel the same way: desperate, wondering where God is and why He has deserted you.

God the Father didn’t abandon Jesus, though it might have seemed like it. He did, however, withhold relief in order to do what He had planned to do: save us by sacrificing His own Son.

That’s how far God went to rescue us from ourselves and our sin: He allowed Jesus to die a bloody, horrible death on a cross. If He will go to that incredible length to ensure that we can have a relationship with Him, there’s no length He won’t go to in order to meet Your need.

It might not work out like you planned. Your life could (and probably will) twist and turn in strange directions that you couldn’t have predicted. But it’s not out of control. It’s not irreparable. It’s not without hope. 

God is still here. He loves you. And He will eventually make sense of the chaos. Don’t give up. 

PRAYER: Where are You, God? I can’t see You. I can’t feel You. But I know You are good and You have promised to never leave me. So I will trust You. Help me not to give up. 

Those are just 13 reasons why you should keep going, and you can find many more in God’s Word.