INTO THY HANDS

• DAY 111
• FAITH FILES: THE COURAGE OF JESUS
• SCRIPTURE: Luke 23:46

“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”

Luke 23:46

Yesterday, we talked about how Jesus felt abandoned on the cross by his Father (if you missed that click here to catch up). Today, we see in our text that this same Jesus lifted up His voice and said “unto You, I commit my spirit.” I found this curious and, quite frankly, a little bit confusing, my human mind could not fathom or comprehend how He still trusted God knowing that He had turned His back to Him. How did He find the faith and the courage to still commit something as delicate as His spirit to God? That was all He had left. He had lost His dignity, disciples, reputation, clothes, support, even health. His spirit was all He had.

I find that what most of us do when we can’t seem to find God in our situation is quit and walk away. We conclude that God is not with us anymore. God is not faithful anymore, and so we start to rely on ourselves, our intelligence and the works of our hands. We lose faith and confidence in God because we consider His silence to be failure. And we withdraw whatever part of our lives or situation we had put in His hands.

No Withdrawals

Years ago, my family were having a tough time financially, it was so severe that we couldn’t make the rent for the family house our mother lived. We tried everything we could to make money, put stuff together and somehow settle this rent and save ourselves the embarrassment. However, everything we tried didn’t seem to work. So we said to our mom, “how about you talk to your siblings and find out if they could help you out with the money?” My mom said something significant, that I will never forget, she said “God, is not an irresponsible Father and He told me that he will supply my needs and take care of this rent, I believe Him.” And though her family had to come through for her before she refused to go to them this time. She chose to trust God. 

Trust Regardless

This did not make sense to me because she had threats from the landlord and letters from lawyers. She was just about to be kicked out. We prayed and fasted, and heard nothing in return. God was silent. So we developed our own plan, our own solution, and our own way. Our actions showed that we no longer trusted God because He was not acting the way we expected and He was silent, we decided that Heaven helps those who help themselves. How unwise.

But the interesting thing was, although we were acting out of fear we still prayed. We didn’t trust God anymore to do His work Himself yet we prayed hoping that He will bless our acts of fear. Ain’t it funny how we tell God, by our actions, that we don’t need Him and we can handle it ourselves and then we invite Him to bless our rebellion? He was worthy of our trust when He did what we wanted, but not so much when He went silent. We withdrew the trust for provision we put in Him and we put it in ourselves.

The Agreement is Valid

But not Jesus, Irrespective of God’s silence, He somehow believed that the agreement They had before He left Heaven was still binding. He understood that the nature of His Father made it impossible for Him to fail or lie, so He depended upon the promise, even when His feelings were saying otherwise. This, my friends, takes courage and faith.

Jesus knew while He was there on the cross, feeling abandoned that everything He was going through had to happen. God already told Him and the prophets recorded it also. Much like how we know that hard and difficult times will come on this earth. Yet, when these things happen, we are somehow perplexed or surprised and that is human nature. It is always beautiful when it’s in theory, but not so much when it becomes reality. But if God is true to His promise of protection He will also be true to the assurance of tough times. You can’t pick and choose which word He keeps.

Commit All

Beloved, tough times doesn’t discredit the faithfulness of God. Just like Jesus, trust God’s nature over your feelings. Don’t hesitate to hand over everything that you are to Him. He is faithful and can be trusted. So trust Him with that business, that child, that childlessness, that hurt, that loneliness, that heartbreak, that provision, accommodation and sustenance. He is still faithful and will always be.

if you’re in that season where trusting Him is tough, then take a moment to pray and ask God to help you through His spirit.

Shalom