How do you move forward when your circumstances say, “No way”? What do you do when your family is falling apart, you’re struggling financially, you’re discouraged and your heart overflows with pain? Is there a way forward when you can’t see a way?
Mark 2 shows us there is. When things seem impossible and we lose all hope of going on, Jesus faithfully makes a way where there is no way.
In Jeremiah 32, the prophet describes a dire scene. Jerusalem was surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army. Outside the city, the enemy was building large mounts to send their troops over the walls. Any Israelite who looked down on this scene was surely filled with a sense of doom.
Jeremiah was one of them. As the terrible scene unfolded, the prophet had to watch from a prison cell.
If anyone ever needed to hear a word from God, it was Job. You remember Job’s story: God had taken down the protective hedge around him and given Satan permission to try Job’s faith. Immediately, chaos broke out in Job’s life. All ten of his children were killed when a tornado struck. All his material assets were destroyed—his home, his cattle, his property, everything. Finally, Satan was allowed to attack Job’s body. The man was stricken with boils from head to toe.
"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).
What does it mean to confess or deny Christ before men? The Greek word for confess here means “covenant” or “assent.” Jesus is speaking of an agreement we have with him. Our part is to confess, or represent, him in our daily lives. We do this by trusting in his promises to care for us and by testifying of it through how we live.
Lately I haven’t been able to shake a certain image from my mind. It’s of a heavenly bank, where God’s people come to make transactions. This bank is always open for us to make deposits, passing to the teller all our sins, anxieties, worries and cares. Of course, the vault where those deposits are taken is the throne room of God’s grace.
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19–20, 22).
There are two sides to Christ’s work at Calvary. One side is to the benefit of man, and the other side is to the benefit of God. One benefits the sinner, while the other benefits the Father.
You’re probably familiar with the story of King David and his adulterous, one-time affair with Bathsheba. The incident resulted in Bathsheba’s pregnancy. And as soon as she discovered her condition, she sent a note to David, saying, “I’m with child.”
When David read the note, he panicked. His reputation as a godly, upright man was in jeopardy. Here was a man who had written more than 3,000 Psalms and spiritual songs. He had been God’s instrument in slaying Israel’s enemies. And he’d illustrated to the world what it meant to have a great heart for God.
In Acts 3, shortly after the resurrection, we find Peter and John going to the temple to worship. Just outside the temple gate sat a beggar who'd been crippled from birth. This man had never walked a step in his life. He had to be carried to the gate daily to make his living from begging.
I know a certain young man who lives in constant dread and fear. These awful feelings began for him the day he walked away from the Lord.
The young man had been gloriously saved and filled with God's Spirit. He had testified of the power of God's grace in his life. And he'd been an effective witness for the gospel. He'd counseled many people in his church, ministering Christ's love to them. Then one day, out of the blue, he said, "I've had it. I don't want this life anymore."
Not long ago, I began planning a book on the suffering of God's saints. I've wanted to encourage Christians about the Lord's faithfulness to his people in the midst of their trials. Since then, many readers have written to me, testifying of how God has given them grace in their times of suffering. One woman wrote of an enduring physical trial:
