Do you ever have days when you wonder if maybe Satan is winning? Does it feel like the grip of evil in this world is just too much to handle? Does it seem like someone you care about is just too immersed in this fallen world to possibly become part of the “kingdom of light” rather than the “domain of darkness?” (Col. 1:12-14) Are you scared? Is your own sin overwhelming you? Is all of this ramping up your other circumstances of suffering? Making your physical pain, grief, and relational challenges even more difficult?
Praise God, He enabled me to play “The Power of the Cross” in church a few weeks ago! It’s on this week’s playlist gift to you, of course. Because it sings God’s answer to us.
The power of the cross!
What happened at the cross?
The resurrected Lord and King Jesus Christ took the sin of His people upon Himself so that we might have His perfect righteousness in place of our sin. Jesus Christ became a substitute for His bride, the perfectly spotless Lamb of God, who took every single bit of the punishment everyone deserves for sin!
The salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ
have now come,
because the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them
before our God day and night,
has been thrown down (Rev. 12:10 CSB, emphasis added)…
Our disarmed accuser constantly accuses us. He tries to make us think our suffering means we don’t belong to Christ, that we’re being punished for sin. Or that there’s zero hope for others who are currently blinded by sin. He tries to make us miserable and joyless, doubting God’s power to raise the dead to life!
It’s the oldest trick in his book. Time to sing!
At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away….
(“At the Cross,” Carter, R. K., & Nickerson, E. E., p. d.)
The power of God!
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy night and day.
Do you remember when you repented and believed, trusting in our King Jesus Christ for salvation? We no longer need to fear the day of judgment. The end of our all-powerful Father’s glorious love story was already written for you and me, with our risen Lord Jesus and the cross as its focus!
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt. 25:34 CSB)…Then he will also say to those on the left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!’ (Mt. 25:41 CSB).
The power of the gospel—no more fear of death!
Maybe when it gets right down to it, our anxieties about what could happen…wars, crime, poverty, starvation, persecution for our faith in Christ, fear for others who don’t yet belong to Jesus…are ultimately fears of death. Let’s ask our omnipotent and powerful Lord to remove that fear as we look to the cross.
Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15 CSB).
I kiss Thy feet, I clasp Thy hand,
I touch Thy bleeding side;
O let me here forever stand,
Where thou wast crucified.
Singing the power of the cross when we’re afraid
When our accuser tempts us to think we’re too sinful to belong to Jesus, we confess. When the devil tempts us to think there’s no way a loved one could ever be saved, we pray and remember His completely sovereign power. Can He save them? Of course!
This is the power of the cross, God’s gift!
When our enemy tempts us to think he’s winning and we start to spiral, we come to the cross and see that it’s EMPTY! Jesus is victoriously ALIVE! He’s already won victory over sin and our great God will bring every single one of His saved children home to Himself! It’s already in His plan!
This is the power of the cross, God’s gift!
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (Jn. 3:17 ESV, emphasis added)!
When the deceiver tempts us to think our faith is not “strong enough” to endure, we come to the cross asking Him to “grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). How? Looking to the empty cross as Rock-solid evidence of His love for us (1 Jn 4:10).
This is the power of the cross, God’s grace, God’s gift of peace!
My Lord, my light, my strength, my all,
I count my gain but loss;
Forever let Thy love enthrall,
And keep me at the cross.
Material adapted from Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering, Lauri A. Hogle, © 2022
A playlist to sing the power of the cross!
When suffering is strong, personally and globally, I know of no better way to infuse our thoughts with the gospel than to sing it! With so many distractions of our enemy, trying to fearfully fixate us on our suffering, sin, and evil, we need to see Christ crucified and risen from the dead, now seated and reigning as King!
This week’s playlist will help us to sing! I pray it is God’s gracious gift of peace to you this week! Sign up below if you’d like to receive it in your email.
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Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character in Our Suffering
