Hold On!

Matthew 27:45-50 NKJV
45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
47 Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” 48 Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.
49 The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

Dear God,
Grant me enduring faith.  Grant me the tenacity of faith and confidence in You, even in the midst of extreme adversity, to hold onto You. Grant me the courage to cling to You with faith when failure and destruction seem certain.  One strand of hope will be enough, if You are that hope. 

William Barclay wrote:  "Here, then, there is the precious thing.  Jesus passed through the uttermost abyss, and then the light broke.  If we too cling to God, even when there seems to be no God, desperately and invincibly clutching the remnants of our faith, then quite certainly the dawn will break, and we will win through  The victor is the man who refuses to believe that God has forgotten him, even when every fiber of his being feels that God has forsaken him.  The victor is the man who will never let go his faith, even when he feels that the last grounds of faith are gone. The victor is the man who has been beaten to the depths, and who still holds on to God, for that is what Jesus did." (William Barclay in The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2, p. 408).

Any adversity I face is small in comparison with Your cross. Any suffering I endure pales in comparison with You--God made flesh taking upon Himself the sins of the whole world.  If I could die on a cross a dozen times, I still would not know the excruciating burden You bore upon the single cross You faced.

Dear Jesus, thank You for going to the cross to bear my sins.  Thank You for dying for me.  Thank You for bearing the sins of the whole world upon Yourself.  Thank You for being the sinless Lamb of God.  Thank You for taking away my sins by faith.  I love You.

My Lord, grant me the courage to endure the cross before me.  Use my temporary moments of suffering to draw me to worship you.  Transform my moments of pain into worship, as You focus my thoughts on the pain You endured for me.  Redirect personal attacks so that my suffering shifts my attention upon the suffering You endured for me.  Help me to die more deeply and completely to myself so that You may live in me.  I want Your mind to become my mind.  I want the mind of Christ.

Thank You for drawing me into Your cross today.  Thank You for a fresh sense of wonder and thanksgiving.  I love You.  I need You.  I am utterly dependent upon You.

In the Name Jesus,
Amen.