{"id":339,"date":"2014-04-16T10:08:42","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T10:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.org\/blog\/?p=339"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:44:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:44:37","slug":"an-inconvenient-faith-37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/an-inconvenient-faith-37\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconvenient Faith (37)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my Rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. Since you are my Rock and my Fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.”<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Psalm 31:1-5)<\/p>\n

“…and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When He had said this, He breathed His last.”<\/em> (Luke 23:45, 46)<\/p>\n

Again, Jesus speaks words of Scripture from the cross.\u00a0 It is\u00a0 another key that gives us some insight into His suffering and how He finds strength within it.\u00a0\u00a0When we look at the Psalm that is on His mind in His final moments we can see that this is a passage declaring trust and faith.\u00a0\u00a0What may seem on the surface to be an attitude of simple surrender to His fate is act of submission to a His Father.\u00a0 One surrenders when they are beaten.\u00a0 It acknowledges weakness in the light of a greater strength.\u00a0 But, submission is an act of strength that shows a trust in\u00a0One with a greater plan and a willingness to follow that plan.<\/p>\n

Jesus was not “giving up” because Satan had won and He was beaten…quite the opposite was true.\u00a0 Jesus was not “giving in” because Satan was stronger…also not true.\u00a0 Jesus was “giving over” His life to the Father in an act of trust that can only come from an intimate relationship with some one.<\/p>\n

This phrase from the cross can give us a great lesson on how we can respond in times when our faith is inconvenient.\u00a0 When we encounter suffering on our journey how can we find strength?\u00a0 These words of Jesus speak volumes.\u00a0 The key is submission.<\/p>\n

First,\u00a0submission starts with relationship.\u00a0 Jesus says, “Father”.\u00a0 You can’t submit without trust and you can’t have trust without relationship.\u00a0 Jesus knew who was in control of His life and had an assurance that His Father would never let Him down.\u00a0 Paul said this when he suffered,<\/p>\n

“That is why I am suffering as I am.\u00a0 Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”<\/em> (2 Timothy 1:12)<\/p>\n

Second, submission requires a willingness to let go and let God…”into Your hands”.\u00a0 You must daily turn your life over to the God who loves you.\u00a0 We must pray these words every day as a commitment to follow Christ each moment.<\/p>\n

Today meditate on your relationship to God.\u00a0 Read again the words of the Psalm above and follow the example of Jesus and use it as a prayer today…Father, into your hands…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my Rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-an-inconvenient-faith-2014-lenten-blog","category-all_posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}