The Best of the Portals of Prayer

Read: 1st Peter 2:24 / Psalm 6

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.”
1st Peter 2:24

His Wounds Do What?

Simon of Cyrene has become the symbol of all the cross bearers of the world. A visitor in Jerusalem for the Passover, he was suddenly taken from the crowd and compelled to carry the cross of the One who had stumbled and fallen under its weight on the “Way of Sorrows”. That is always God’s way of doing things. The road of life may wind along smoothly for many days. Then something happens – sickness, the sudden loss of a loved one, broken plans – and the way becomes rough and hard. Our hopes and plans must get out of the way for the plans of God.
It is a hard lesson to learn, but we must learn it. For the Christian heart, the heart that rests securely in God, the lesson is not as dark as we sometimes think it is. Simon lost his way and was found by Christ. So are we. Simon lost control of his own plans, only to find that he was permitted by the grace of God to play a small role in God’s greater plan. So it is with us. It is never easy to carry a cross, but it is always blessed – blessed because it is God’s way of bringing us closer to Him.
This is true also of the crosses of others. There is a strange truth at the very heart of the Christian life: bearing the burdens of others makes the weight of our own, at times, seem like nothing. As we carry them, Jesus joins us on the road, places the arm of His mercy and strength around us, and tells us: “truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” [Matthew 25:40].

Dear Lord, help my bear my cross, whatever it may be. May I learn to be humble amid pain and loss. Hear me, O Savior, that I may sing your praise forever.

March 14, 2011