Do
you ever wonder why there seems to be an ever-increasing level of stress and
pressure in your life? I do. In fact I’ve coined a new term for this
condition – I call it “stressure.” I don’t always know what causes it, and I
don’t always know where to find relief from it.
But I do know God allows it in my life, and therefore, there must be a
reason and a purpose for it.
In my opinion, one of the most amazing passages in
the scriptures is Hebrew 5:5-8. When we
study and appreciate these verses, they will generate a deep sense of awe and
reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ, and it will help us better understand the
will of God in this stressure we’re experiencing. It says:
“So also Christ did not glorify Himself to
become High Priest…Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up
prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was
a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”
Jesus humbled Himself that He might become our High
Priest. He glorified God by receiving His sufferings willingly and submitting
His will to His Father. What a
remarkable relationship they shared - so much so that the death of the Son
brought glory and praise to the Father.
Could the Lord be calling us to die to ourselves as Jesus did? Perhaps the Lord allows just enough stressure in our lives to drive us to
our knees with tears and cries of brokenness and submission. It may feel
like defeat, but the child of God prays to our Father who is able to save us from
death and bring joy for every tear we shed.
And truly, the Lord is glorified by the wonderful service you render to
Him and the saints in spite your sufferings!
Another astonishing phrase in this passage is:
“…though He was a Son, yet He learned
obedience by the things He suffered.”
It
never dawned on me that Jesus had things to learn. I always assumed because He was God in flesh,
He knew everything. Yet the scriptures
teach He emptied Himself of the privileges of His deity, and became like us in
every way, yet without sin (Philippians 2:5-11). Jesus humbled Himself to the
lowly status of a child, student, and servant – and the method the Father used
to train and mature Him was suffering.
Only then was He able to receive the mantle of High Priest, which was
the Father’s purpose for Him.
I
point these things out that we might realize the marvelous hand of God in our
lives even in things that hurt and things we don’t like or understand. When we begin to view our sufferings in light
the eternal weight of glory God has for us, we are able to endure them with a
joy that confounds the world around us. Most importantly, we give pleasure and
glory to God when we trust Him with our lives through every season and
circumstance. So smile – the more stressure the more proud the Father is
when we humble ourselves, and the more it makes us like Jesus!
Love and blessings,
Pastor Eric
