Get ready to start a journey…a journey through the pages of the Bible and the pages of your life.
The Tuesday before the cross was a busy day for Jesus. Three groups of people came to him with questions. Their queries aimed to trap Jesus in a contradiction or statement they could use against him. Jesus’ popularity was getting out of hand, and the religious leaders planned to put a stop to it.
After what we now call the Triumphal Entry, Jesus spent Sunday evening in Bethany, a small town just outside of Jerusalem. On Monday morning, he returned to Jerusalem and went straight to the temple.
There was no shortage of “Messiahs” in the days of Jesus. In Acts 5, a prominent Jewish leader named Gamaliel noted two Jewish leaders whose large followings had “scattered” after the self-proclaimed “Messiahs” were killed.
What does your relationship with God depend on? Things that you do? Things that you don’t do? Can you lose your relationship with God? Can you have a relationship with God and then do something that causes God to kick you out of his family?
What if God was not on your side? What if he didn’t have your back? What if he decided to take his eyes off you and look the other way? What if God said, “You are on your own!”
All these stories have names. And we all could add to the list of tragedies we see around us. The question is: How does God work all these things out for good? Does he…can he work all these things out for good?
What do you do when you can’t pray? When the words won’t come. When your soul is exhausted. The great missionary J. Hudson Taylor came to that point. When anxiety filled his heart, he said, “I can’t read. I can’t think. I can’t pray. But I can trust.” We can all trust and know that the Holy Spirit is praying for us at a level we cannot comprehend.
Let’s think about the word “hope”—what does it mean? Some people hope it doesn’t rain, while others hope the rain comes soon. Some hope something goes away; others hope something shows up. Some people are hopeful. Some are hopeless. Some people find hope, while others lose it.
The pain we endure in life hurts. Sometimes, our journey takes us through times of devastation and discouragement. The loss of a job, illness, relationship breakups, an unrealized dream, and death are just some of the adversities that can bring about “sufferings of this present time.”
How do you know for sure? How can you know that you are a child of God? How do you know for certain that you will go to heaven when you die? You have trusted in Jesus and do your best to follow him, but how can you be confident that when you close your eyes in death, you will open them to see the Savior?
Have you ever heard the term “mortification of the flesh”? That’s how theological writers of old termed what Paul presents in our passage today. These writers understood the spiritual battle—the old life, ruled by the sinful nature, versus the new life, ruled by the Spirit.
The Spirit of God lives in you. That’s the amazing truth for every true believer. And when the Spirit of Christ lives in us, that changes everything.