It is Finished! - Good Friday Devotion 2016
IT IS FINISHED!
I believe that statement made in
this passage is one of the strongest statements a person can hear. Those three
simple words towards the end of the verse carry so much power. They carry the
power to change your life. It is Finished.
The words from Isaiah 53:5 help us
to unpack and understand why Jesus went to the cross. However for me the
Message translation really drives it home, it puts it like this.
“We looked down on him, thought he
was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all
the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was
punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that
made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.”
When Jesus died on the cross and
cried out those three words IT IS FINISHED. He wasn’t referring to himself, he
wasn’t referring to God, he was referring to us, the sinful, rebellious part of
us. He was speaking directly to our sicknesses, struggles, difficulties and
problems. He was saying it is finished, it is over, he has done your time, he
has taken your heartbreak, he has lived your problems, taken your sickness,
seen our struggles, bore our pain, HE TOOK IT, HE BORE IT, HE SUFFERED THEM so
you don’t have to he cried out IT IS FINISHED!!! And from that moment until
this moment for as long as our minds will allow us to imagine it will REMAIN
FINISHED.
He loved us so much that he took it
all for us, before we were even born! There are NO conditions to obtain it all
we have to do is love him in return.
Today there are so many people
struggling with a whole array of different problems and I would love to have
the time to unpack this more and explore what our response as a church and as
Christians should be to such life giving words. But instead on this Good Friday
as we remember that Christ went to the cross for us, I want us to take the time
to reflect on that message and the everlasting impact it can have on our lives.
There are so many Christians and there
may even be some reading this that are very quick to say, Oh God can’t sort
this, God isn’t interested or to say It is Finished on their walk with Jesus
all together rather than to turn their back on their on their problems
struggles and trials. There are people that feel they aren’t strong enough to
cope or that God has forgotten them, and that needs to change!! These words
that Jesus spoke show his utmost love and mercy for us, the fact he suffered
the most horrific death to take our sin upon him shows us that he most
definitely has not forgotten us, and if Christ lives in us then we are
definitely strong enough.
Two questions I would ask you to
reflect upon are 1) Are you fed up struggling with things in your life that u
have declared it is finished on your walk with God? 2) Have you given up any
hope of anything positive coming out of your life or your current situation?
When God first spoke to me when I
was 16 and told me he was calling me to full time ministry, I ran in the other
direction, I didn’t want it, I wasn’t good enough and I definitely couldn’t do
it. For two years I wrestled with God and for two years he didn’t give up on
me, even though for some of it I had given up on myself. When I made that
commitment at 18 that my life was his and that I would follow his call wherever
it led and whenever he asked one of the key things I had to learn. And fast was.
my God is bigger than any problem I have.
In my office at home I have a rather
large pen that sits on my desk, so that whenever I am writing talks, preparing
studies or whatever it may be and the devil taps me on the shoulder and says
you aren’t good enough because of A, B or C. I can look straight at that pen
and remind him not only is my God bigger than any problem I have or will face.
But that my God defeated him on calvary that very first Easter. It took time
for me to let that truth sink in and become embedded in not only my heart but
my spirit.
Today how many of us truly believe
and hold that truth deep in our hearts? My question is why then when problems
creep up on you, when they hit you right between the eyes. When they jump up
when you are feeling low because let’s be honest that seems to be when the most
problems arise. Do we let them get on top of us? Maybe its just me but I know
that its when I’m at my lowest that I tend to find it difficult to keep my
focus on Jesus or even loose sight of him altogether. Yet those are the times
when we need to be looking to Jesus and screaming the most and remembering and
holding onto what he has done for us.
Today may only be Friday, but Sunday
is coming.
We need to remember that the same
power that rose Christ from the grave lives in us. The thing is to really
declare it is finished and to move on we need to take those problems, hurts and
fears run back to the cross with them and leave them there. When problems come
run straight back into Jesus arms. Christian or non Christian, God is still
God, Jesus still died for you.
Maybe you don’t know anything about
Jesus, maybe you’ve had him in your life before but you left him at the side of
the road somewhere, maybe you’ve never known him. Maybe you’re reading this and
the Holy Spirit is putting someone on your mind to go and share this with or to
pray for. Do It, don’t hold back
We have the most amazing love story
to tell people and we shouldn’t be afraid to do that. Or maybe everything I am
saying is starting to make sense to you, you have tried every other option and
cure for your problems and things still aren’t great then maybe you need
someone to stand with you as you ask God to intervene and to trust in Jesus
100%. When Jesus said it is finished, he meant his work on earth, his work on
earth was to reunite us with God, to come and stand in that gap for us. I am
passionate about seeing people encounter God, I don’t care if that’s in a
church building, in a car at the side of the road, on a beach or in the middle
of a public car park. I want to see people prayed for, encouraged, healed and
set free to worship him.
I feel so blessed and humbled that
God has called me to be an ambassador for him that I will talk to and pray with
anyone in any situation and in any place and yes I have done that in those
places I mentioned and more. I want to see people passionately pursue Jesus, to
be overwhelmed by his love and want to pour that out to others
Easter is the time when we celebrate
Christ’s power over death, his resurrection and the New Hope we have through
him. We need to remember those three words he uttered for us. It is finished. Maybe
now is the perfect time to take a step in faith and grow in that relationship
with Christ. Let us remember that, let us take into and embed it in our hearts
and live our lives knowing that Our God died on a cross for us and he goes
before us into every situation.
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