W@W WRAP – Week 329

Two Sides of the Cross

Read:

Act:

As we reflect on the Cross, let us:

Remember that God is light! His light shines brighter than our darkest moment! His light penetrates every dark place, and every area of sin. It transforms the place of deepest gloom to become as radiant as the brightest sunshine. His light enables us to receive grace and mercy, and will guide and direct us out of our darkest days. What a joy to remember 1 John 1:5 (AMP), “This is the message [of God’s promised revelation] which we have heard from Him and now announce to you, that God is Light [He is holy, His message is truthful, He is perfect in righteousness], and in Him there is no darkness at all [no sin, no wickedness, no imperfection].” Because of God’s great love for us, He sent Jesus, the light of this world to bring us into right standing with our Father. From the moment we ask Jesus to forgive our sins and become our personal Saviour, we have His Holy Spirit living inside us to help us through each day. As we experience the Holy Spirit working in and through our hearts, we will find Christ Himself shining His light into even the darkest areas of our lives. His light brings hope, peace, freedom and purpose to us! Jesus took the punishment for our sins on the cross and triumphed over the death penalty for those sins. We can now spend eternity worshipping, glorifying and praising His holy name – an eternity of walking in His light. (Psalm 22:22-25)

Go back to basics – back to the cross. Let’s take a moment to examine ourselves… Have you received and experienced the love of God? Do you enjoy the radiant, life-giving light of God or are you entangled in sin or unhealthy habits? Do you truly trust God? Are your priorities and perspectives aligned with God’s will? Do you pursue and seek God and His Kingdom above all else? Are you following Jesus’ example of humbly serving others and allowing God’s light to shine through you? Would you give your life for the salvation of others? What will you do differently to put God first in your life today? How can you imitate and show God’s unconditional love to all those around you? To truthfully answer these questions, we need wisdom and discernment; and we also need to appreciate the two sides of the cross. On the one side is sin, bondage and death; on the other side, we find Jesus – love, light and eternal life! In his writings to the church in Rome, Paul describes this as follows in Romans 6:18-23 (MSG), “So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new Master, One whose commands set you free to live openly in His freedom! As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end. But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.”

So may we always remember that our Lord took the consequences of sin on Himself, and He also left us the cross – the empty cross – as a reminder that we are forgiven, made new and accepted into the family of God. May we live every day in that light – the glorious light of Jesus!

Pray:

Father, You know that darkness sometimes overwhelms and consumes us, but thank You that darkness is not dark to You. You are the light of the world and our hope in every situation. Give us the courage and the boldness to walk through trouble and suffering. Whisper words to us in those places, so that we have light and hope to carry to the world at the end of our story. In Jesus’ name I pray this.

Father, I thank You that we can come to You this day. Thank You that You died on the cross for us. Thank You Lord, that there is salvation for the nations. Lord, may we as Christians play the role that we have been called to play here on earth. May we faithfully serve You while we have the opportunity to do so. We pray these things in Jesus’ name.

God, we thank You for everything that You have given us, and for Your unconditional love. We ask that You would continue to guide our paths so that we may show that same love to others – today and every day. Lord, we thank You, we love You, we adore You.

Father God, we come humbly into Your presence, and like the Psalmist, we pray: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there is any grievous way in me.” May we repent and return to You and find a new and glorious joy in the Salvation that only you can provide. Thank You for Your magnificent work – perfected in Your Son Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit – so that we can be led in the way everlasting. In Jesus’ holy name, we pray.

Father, we thank You for this opportunity. We acknowledge that we fall short of the Your Glory every day. When we compare the lives that we live to the life Jesus lived – a life of selfless giving and forgiving – we recognise that we fall short. But Father we praise You that You have made a way for us to live victorious, overcoming lives. Lord, help us to stay sensitive to sin. We don’t want to become indifferent, but rather to continue looking to You for the grace to overcome our sin. We ask this in light of the cross and in the precious name of Jesus Christ, Amen.