This is part of an ongoing series during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. To engage further in the #QuarantineSoulCare series, click here.
When storms come, trees strike their roots deeper into the soil. In a hurricane we retreat to the safest, most secure corner of our home. So then our trials ought to drive us more deeply into the love of Christ.
Our hearts are continually prone to wander from God. We are quickly satisfied by experiences of prosperity and entertainment, and our senses dull, so that we are ill prepared to abide in Christ. So then, our experiences of hardship may be considered a mercy—admittedly a severe mercy—by which God reveals the darkness of the world around us and the brokenness within us. … As we return to abiding in Christ we become better aware that here is our only hope, our only rest. When our afflictions are removed, perhaps we will be less quick to leave God’s presence.
Knowing this, God subjects us to affliction even though He takes no pleasure in it. It is wise, then, to pray in every affliction (whether small or great) for grace to see the Father pointing us to Christ and saying, “Abide in Him.” …
As we abide in Christ, our little crosses of suffering become the means of fellowship with His cross. We gain access to its mysteries—the mystery of the curse He bore on the cross, of the death to sin in which we participate, of the love in which our great High Priest entered into our sorrows. Abide in Christ, and you will grow in conformity to Him, even as you experience more deeply the reality and tenderness of His love.
If you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.
–John 15:5-8, The Message
May today your little crosses of suffering gain you access to the great mysteries of the cross and the abiding love of your great High Priest. #quarantinesoulcare Click To Tweet
Today’s reading was taken from Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray.
