Friends, without even realizing it we are on the wheel today. There is a final destination awaiting us in glory and progress is being made on that final product. While the end goal is heaven, here we are formed to be vessels fit for the Master’s use (2 Timothy 2:21). Some days we may feel all right, others our imperfections may seem more pronounced, but take heart for even that great apostle once declared, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect…” (Philippians 3:12). It may be we are still in the process. It may be that the Father’s loving and careful hands are still at the wheel shaping us: “Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand…” (Jeremiah 18:6). By faith, allow yourself to be shaped.
He carried so much. More than “our sins and griefs to bear,”1 He carried the weight, the pain, the inner turmoil, and mental anguish the results of all the by-products of those sins and griefs, upon a heavy-laden heart and mind. Tears welled inside to the bursting, refusing to fall from the eyes that were singularly focused upon a greater joy.
It was the psalmist who wrote, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” Psalm 30:5, recognizing the temporary hold tears and sorrow have, especially when one’s heart is fixated upon a greater joy to be found in the morning.
For Christ, the illness of sin had made its mark on His body and throughout His person. Yet, in the heaviness of the load He carried, and the pain His holy vessel endured, we are told, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” Hebrews 12:2.
Although the joy was there for what it would accomplish, let us not approach the pain He endured physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually in a lackadaisical fashion. Let us not brush aside what strength of heart and mind this endurance called for. Let’s not subtract what the man, the person of Jesus felt and suffered at the hands of all these afflictions.
So heavy it was, and so hard it was, we couldn’t do it for ourselves: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” 2 Corinthians 3:5.
The tarnished state of man could never find in himself the satisfaction this heaviness of sin required, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23. But in Christ, “ God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” Romans 3:25.
Sin was paid in full. Joy came at the thought and complete process and plan of the redeemed being ransomed from the clutches of darkness. But let us not be unmindful or take lightly the night afflictions He suffered through before the day dawned. In it, there was real pain and real sacrifice beyond the scope of what we can imagine. All for the joy that we might experience a glory unimaginable, where “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
The weight of what Jesus endured could not dim the glory of the greater joy in the morning. Aren’t we glad about it!
He suffered, To save, His greater joy Came to our aid, And satisfied the debt, We could not pay.
His joy is complete, In the sky We shall meet, The blessed Savior Our sins impaled Hands and feet.
Absent are tears Or turning away, Forever with Him We shall surely stay. Accepting His sacrifice Paved the way.
The world we live in currently bears the scars of the travesty that has taken place. When sin entered, it did more than cause our separation from God (which was the worst). It also caused hurt, disorder, dysfunction, and disease where there was only to be peace, love, harmony, and health.
Our Garden of Eden has become a briar patch of thorns and pain that hurt and hinder where the Word was spoken for good. The truth of this condition is told in Scripture as the Apostle Paul says, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:22, 23).
When something is groaning it means something is not right. Think along the lines of an upset stomach. People tend to groan and hold themselves tightly to express their utter discomfort at the wrong they feel going on inside themselves. Their body is in pain until that which caused the discomfort is cured and eased.
In the above verses, there is groaning seen in the state of man and creation alike. But the promise for those in Christ is that it will not remain as it is now. Healing is on the horizon. Nature will regain its right order. That which was called good will shine brighter than its original beauty before. And we, my friends, who have experienced and lived through the turmoil of this world, will finally find the ultimate peace and completion of true wholeness.
That which is flesh will be given over to the Spirit. That of the world will dissipate before glory. The enemy you see today, you will see no more for everything will be healed. You will be freer than you have ever been before as the burdens of this life are laid down once and for all, as the culmination of everything we have maintained this hope for comes to pass.
As we carry His Spirit in us today, we carry it with the knowing that our faith, although it has seen many trials, is not in vain. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
The promise is there, and the promise is real. Everything not fitted for the purpose of that glorious Kingdom will be done away with. Tears and death, hopelessness and despair, pain, and suffering – all will be passed away (Revelation 21:4). “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new . . .” (Revelation 21:5). What was wrong will be righted. What was broken will be fully and completely healed as groanings are replaced by glory forever.
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” – Isaiah 65:17
“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” – 1 Peter 5:10
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” – 1 John 5:4
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