As Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olive, He asked that the cup of suffering be removed. What is this cup? It is the cup of God’s wrath. Our sin separates and brings God’s anger. In Scripture, drinking the cup of wrath represents experiencing God’s judgment for our wrongdoing. Psalm 75: 7 It is God alone …
The danger of overconfidence is something we may dismiss until we are caught up in failure of our own making. The Bible often connects pride with overconfidence, leading to our downfall. Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. [1] Through faith in Jesus as our Savior, we have everything we need …
The disciples did not understand servant leadership. Jesus had just told them that one of them would betray Him. This led to an argument about which was the greatest. Perhaps this happened because they were speculating over who would betray Him. This was not the first time they had argued over this topic. Luke 9:46 Then …
Naaman’s wife’s servant girl was captured but still believing. While Aram and Israel were officially at peace, Aram often crossed the border on raids. On one of these raids, the army conscripted a young girl into slavery. This girl ends up serving the wife in Naaman’s household. She was taken from home to a foreign …
Jesus, the suffering servant, was revealed to the Ethiopian eunuch as Philip explained the Isaiah Fifty-three passage. Earlier, an angel of the Lord told Philip, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.”[1] As Philip obeyed the angel’s voice, he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, who was reading from the Book …
James gives us the solution for immature faith: trials and trouble. James 1:2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, …
Suffering helps me look upward and is not something that happens to people of the Bible but also to every believer in Jesus who cries out to Him. When you reflect on a difficult time, how did the Lord use that to draw you to Him in prayer? When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, they …
Paul demonstrated joy amid suffering in the letter to the Philippians. When Paul wrote this letter, he was in prison. Paul began his letter with a prayer of thanksgiving for the Philippians. Then, he mentions a reason for his thankfulness. Philippians 1: 7b You share with me the special favor of God, both in my …
Have you ever felt like the Lord had forgotten you? Suffering does not mean you are forgotten. Often, when we are going through a trial or enduring some type of suffering, we tend to think the Lord has forgotten about us. During this time, we are usually looking down instead of looking up to our …
There seems to be a stream of thought that says that if you believe in Jesus, then you won’t have any problems. That sounds great, but it isn’t Biblical. In fact Jesus said in John 16: “33 And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and …