HE TOOK MY CASE
SCRIPTURE
You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.
- Lamentations 3:58
As an awkward teenager, my mouth usually got me into more trouble than my actions did. I tended to argue a point to the despair of everyone else in my family. My sister used to take me aside and plead, "Why can't you just stop arguing and leave it alone?" I couldn't answer then, but I think I can now.
I wanted someone to stand up for me and take my side. I fought for self-worth that I thought someone else had to give me--preferably on a silver platter, and a trumpet would be nice! What I didn't understand was that what I wanted the most would never come from an argument; it would come because the Creator of this world stood up for me.
What God did for me, he did for the whole world. At just the right moment, God took our case. He opened his heart and showed us Jesus to help us know his love as the purest, most healing, most redeeming love ever shared. He knows our self-centered, sinful history, can see our future, and wants to love us into eternity with every good and perfect gift along the way.
God took our case and argued our worth by giving us Jesus. God willingly became human to experience rejection, betrayal, and humiliating death. His argument for us enables us to live deeply loved so that we can love others honestly and selflessly in ways that do not empty us. We can live with healed self-concepts birthed in God's love for us. We can live knowing someone is always standing up for us with an argument of love that no one can silence except ourselves.
Today is a good day to live in the love of the One who took our case to the cross. We can live loved, in order to love more fully. We can live loved, in order to serve without needing something in return. We can live loved, and enjoy the original intimacy model with God, without fear of anything he already knows. Why would we want to live any other way?
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. What difference does it make that Jesus carried your case to the cross?
2. What does Jesus deserve from you because he died to save you from living without God?
AFFIRMATION
Jesus took my case, and I need no other argument to know I am loved.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Eternal Litigator, remind me how you stood up for me, and help me stand up for you.
SCRIPTURE
You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.
- Lamentations 3:58
As an awkward teenager, my mouth usually got me into more trouble than my actions did. I tended to argue a point to the despair of everyone else in my family. My sister used to take me aside and plead, "Why can't you just stop arguing and leave it alone?" I couldn't answer then, but I think I can now.
I wanted someone to stand up for me and take my side. I fought for self-worth that I thought someone else had to give me--preferably on a silver platter, and a trumpet would be nice! What I didn't understand was that what I wanted the most would never come from an argument; it would come because the Creator of this world stood up for me.
What God did for me, he did for the whole world. At just the right moment, God took our case. He opened his heart and showed us Jesus to help us know his love as the purest, most healing, most redeeming love ever shared. He knows our self-centered, sinful history, can see our future, and wants to love us into eternity with every good and perfect gift along the way.
God took our case and argued our worth by giving us Jesus. God willingly became human to experience rejection, betrayal, and humiliating death. His argument for us enables us to live deeply loved so that we can love others honestly and selflessly in ways that do not empty us. We can live with healed self-concepts birthed in God's love for us. We can live knowing someone is always standing up for us with an argument of love that no one can silence except ourselves.
Today is a good day to live in the love of the One who took our case to the cross. We can live loved, in order to love more fully. We can live loved, in order to serve without needing something in return. We can live loved, and enjoy the original intimacy model with God, without fear of anything he already knows. Why would we want to live any other way?
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. What difference does it make that Jesus carried your case to the cross?
2. What does Jesus deserve from you because he died to save you from living without God?
AFFIRMATION
Jesus took my case, and I need no other argument to know I am loved.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Eternal Litigator, remind me how you stood up for me, and help me stand up for you.
Posted in Lent