Day 17: Eat Pray Love

"FIX YOUR EYES ON JESUS" (Hebrews 12:2)

is what we are asked to do.

BUT what if you are too afraid to fix your eyes on

HIM

because doubt overcomes your soul as you question~

"JESUS, Are you REALLY who YOU say YOU are?"

I looked into JESUS' eyes

 in the midst of an overwhelming darkness

 that I couldn’t shake.

 A darkness that was so dark,

 that I had never felt before.

 It was after a time I was so depleted

and in such despair

 that I was actually afraid to

FIX my eyes on JESUS

because I couldn't even "feel" GOD,

therefore I was afraid to trust HIS SON.

But then I saw HIM in the garden of Gethsemane.

 Slumped over a rock,

 in HIS weakest moment as

“....HE began to be sorrowful and troubled.

 Then HE said to them,

 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death...'" 

(Matthew 26:3738).

 "And being in anguish, HE prayed more earnestly,

and HIS sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground”

(Luke 22:44.)

There HE was,

my KING suffering,

 and fear took over me.

 I shouted to HIM~

"How can I trust YOU?

Look what they did to YOU!"

Wow, my FEAR exposed.

 And then HE answered me

oh so clearly

as I heard the words spoken to my heart~

“It takes a STRONG MAN to get on a cross!”

 And wow,

the ONE who hung on the cross

 didn’t do it in weakness.

Oh the STRENGTH of FORGIVENESS

. And in that moment the fear & the darkness was removed in me.

 What if I didn’t cry out in my fear?

What if JESUS didn’t cry out IN PRAYER~

"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from ME;

 yet not MY will, but YOURS be done" (Luke 22:42).

 Would HE have been strong~

"An angel from heaven appeared to HIM and strengthened HIM" 

(Luke 22:43).

What about you?

 How many prayers have you cried out in anguish?

Have you been STRENGTHENED by prayer

as you cry out

in fear,

in anxiety,

in worry,

in doubt,

in _______,

to the ONE who was clothed with STRENGTH?

THE STRENGTH OF FORGIVENESS

at HIS LAST SUPPER

as HE shared with the one who would betray HIM.

THE STRENGTH OF FORGIVENESS

as HE cried out

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing"

 (Luke 23:34)

THE STRENGTH OF FORGIVENESS

as HE RECEIVED each nail that hung HIM on our cross

as HE cried out again to HIS FATHER

 “MY GOD, MY GOD,

why have YOU forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45).

Oh THE STRENGTH OF PRAYER

as you continue to cry out to

OUR FATHER in your moments

of

Fear,

 Anxiety,

 Worry,

and

Doubt

because JESUS cried out first in HIS anguish,

because

IT TAKES A STRONG MAN TO GET ON A CROSS .

What is the CRY of your HEART?

Have you TRUSTED "it" with

the ONE who cried out on the cross?

Therefore,

  FAST from

 HOLDING ONTO

whatever is weighing down your heart

 that you need to surrender to

JESUS,

 and just CRY out

 IN PRAYER to HIM.

because

JESUS knows how to

CRY

as HE bled to death

for you and for me and everyone else.

For there is

"NO GREATER LOVE"

(listen to the song below)