In quietness and in trust shall be your strength (Is. 30:15b ESV).
“But Lord,” she cried. “Nothing in my life feels quiet or calm. My life is filled with chaos, this fallen world is filled with chaos and noise. I’m honestly battling the ever-present anxiety that underlies my life circumstances and everything in today’s world. Please help me.”
Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty Rock
within a weary land;
a home within the wilderness,
a rest upon the way,
from the burning of the noontide heat
and the burden of the day.
“Beneath the Cross of Jesus,” Clephane, E. C. (1868)
Beneath the cross of Jesus, she remembered
She gazed upon her Savior anew, the One who is:
- the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15);
- before all things and in Whom all things hold together (Col. 1:17);
- the fullness of God who had reconciled her to God as a sinner, making peace for her with God, by the blood of His cross (Col. 1:20, 22).
In the cool shadow of her redeemed place in Christ, she calmed quiet as she remembered His might. She recalled that her mighty Rock is the same Rock that provided continual spiritual sustenance to God’s people wandering in the wilderness (I Cor. 10:1-5). She remembered how He has been her personal Rock of Ages in times past, the gracious source of ALL in her life.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, she came home to rest again
Upon the cross of Jesus
mine eye at times can see
the very dying form of One
who suffered there for me:
and from my stricken heart with tears
two wonders I confess,
the wonders of redeeming love
and my unworthiness.
She lamented her chaos and burden of today, its burning, its weary of wandering in what feels like a wilderness. But, beneath the cross of Jesus, she confessed her need to re-see His gift to her as a sinner unworthy. She once was a girl who was completely dead in her trespasses and sins, deserving of God’s wrath, unable to even see her sin due to her inborn sin nature (Eph. 2:1-3). By His redeeming love, she has a new, true home. As she waits to arrive there, she lives in His redeeming love today.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, her heart turned from her chaos to see the wonders of His redeeming love
Her soul quieted as He filled her mind with the totally surpassing greatness and preeminence of Jesus, the reigning power of Her risen Lord, and extraordinary gift of God’s reconciling love given to her in Jesus’ death. He had opened her eyes and caused her to see. What amazing grace.
I take, O cross, thy shadow
for my abiding place:
I ask no other sunshine than
the sunshine of his face;
content to let the world go by,
to know no gain nor loss;
my sinful self my only shame,
my glory all the cross.
The Lord helped her to trust Him yet again
She could be confident in His ongoing, sustaining, abiding, all-powerful, transforming, and glorious love for her.
Daily.
In today’s chaos and hard.
She could trust the Lord’s continual love for her.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (I Cor. 1:18 ESV).
The Lord strengthened her into praising Him
Into the chaos and suffering, she stood beneath the cross of Jesus, glorifying God and praising Him with a song and with whatever her life held for her today, in Christ:
Who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen (Gal 1:4-5 ESV).
Amen and amen.
I craft weekly playlists of songs to help us sing to the Lord in personal worship, trusting Him, as He strengthens us by His Word and helps us respond to Him in song. This week’s playlist is filled with songs that take us to the cross, to glory in Jesus and trust in Jesus as we remember His sacrificial death and deep love for us. If it would encourage and bless you to receive YouTube playlists with lyrics that help you sing and remember, sign up here and my playlists will come to your email. I’m praying for you, beloved in Christ.
