God, I cherish Your name as my Savior (Is. 43:11; Hos. 13:4). Into my suffering today, please remind me of Your love story in my Savior, Jesus Christ.
Chapter 1: Creation and Fall
In the beginning of the love story, You declared everything in Your creation as “very good” (Gen. 1:31). But the fall in Genesis 3 destroyed everything. This world now groans under the weight of sin and its effects. I’m groaning today. After Adam’s sin, all people are now born as sinners; we hide from Your holy presence. Everyone deserves Your righteous anger and punishment for our sin, so it’s no wonder. We can’t possibly live up to Your perfect and holy standard, because of our inborn sin.
But God, because of Jesus Christ, You’ve changed everything for me! You’ve made me alive, not dead!
You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world…like the rest of mankind (Eph. 2:1-3 ESV).
My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine;
for thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.
(“MY JESUS, I LOVE THEE,” FEATHERSTON, W. R., 1862)
My Savior, Jesus Christ!
Help me remember the joy! “For unto you is born…a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:11). With Messianic prophecies fulfilled, You came to earth as Jesus, my deliverer.
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12 ESV).
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6 ESV).
You “saved” me! This Greek word means You rescued me, keeping me safe from destruction, healing my soul, and making me whole. In Your great love for me, by Your gift of grace, You saved me from being separated from You by my sin!
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom. 10:9 ESV).
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:8-9) and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith (Rom. 3:24-25).
I love thee because thou hast first loved me,
and purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.
Chapter 2: Our current time of salvation
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day (Jn. 6:44 ESV)
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out (Jn. 6:37 ESV).
Merciful and loving Father, You saved me, making me alive in Christ and with Christ (Eph. 2:4-6)!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17 ESV).
What a comfort that [Jesus] “is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25 ESV).
I’ll love thee in life, I will love thee in death;
and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath;
and say, when the death-dew lies cold on my brow:
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.
The Final Chapter: Restoration
Father, the gospel “by which you are being saved” (1 Cor. 15:2) gives me resurrection hope beyond this short life (1 Cor. 15:19). In the new heaven and new earth, fully restored to Your created perfection, a sin-free world with those in Christ, I will live forever with You and Your bride in Your consummated love story! You will “make all things new!” (Rev. 21:1-8)
In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow:
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.
My suffering today, with my Savior, Jesus Christ
So, what am I saved for today? What is my hope now, when everything is so hard?
I’m with Jesus, in Jesus, belonging to Jesus.
You are transforming me…
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18 ESV).
So, please help me to…
not lose heart.
Though [my] outer self is wasting away, [my] inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for [me] an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as [I] look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18 ESV).
Praising my God!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to Your great mercy, You have caused [me] to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for [me,] who by [Your] power is being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this [I] rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, [I] have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of [my] faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:3-7 ESV).
Help me to sing of Your love story, the gospel of Jesus Christ, into my suffering today. All glory to You, my Savior and Lord of love. In the saving name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Material adapted from Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character in Our Suffering, Lauri A. Hogle. Copyright © 2022
A playlist to praise our Savior, Jesus Christ
Sister in Christ, when suffering threatens to squelch my song, I have to sing our hope of the gospel to myself. Let’s remind our hearts of what our God has done for us by saving us through Jesus Christ. Let’s rest in His abiding love for us as we sing gospel truths back to Him, lost in wonder, love, and praise. I’ve created a powerful gospel-centered playlist so that we can love and exalt our God, our Savior, in worship-full response, as we suffer right now. If this would bless and encourage you, sign up here and it will come to your email!
