Day 14 When God Seems Distant
God is real, no matter how you feel.
If you have never read the book of Job, read it now. It's in the old testament and Job shows great trust in the Lord through trials.
My favorite line in this day was "How do you keep your eyes on Jesus when they are full of tears?" Do these four things: Tell God exactly how you feel. Focus on who God is. Trust God to keep his promises. and Remember what God has already done for you.
on page 112 the author goes into detail about what God has done for you. I wanted to explain more about sacrifices. I got this off the internet...
God required animal sacrifices to provide temporary forgiveness of sins and to foreshadow the perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Animal sacrifice is an important theme found throughout Scripture because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”. First, the animal had to be spotless. Second, the person offering the sacrifice had to identify with the animal. Third, the person offering the animal had to inflict death upon it. When done in faith, this sacrifice provided forgiveness of sins.
Animal sacrifices have ended because Jesus Christ was the ultimate and perfect sacrifice! John the Baptist recognized this when he saw Jesus coming to be baptized and said, “Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Since the animals did no wrong, they died in place of the one performing the sacrifice. Jesus Christ also did no wrong but willingly gave Himself to die for the sins of mankind. Jesus Christ took our sin upon Himself and died IN OUR PLACE. Through faith in what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, we can receive forgiveness.
Animal sacrifices were commanded by God so that the individual could experience forgiveness of sin. The animal served as a substitute—that is, the animal died in place of the sinner, but only temporarily, which is why the sacrifices needed to be offered over and over. Animal sacrifices have stopped with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was the ultimate sacrificial substitute once for all time. Animal sacrifices foreshadowed Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.
This chapter was a lil weird/confusing to me. but the things I did like about it was that it said to tell God exactly how you feel. he can handle anything you throw at him.
ReplyDeleteI will add a happy note that the past week i have been praying about finances and other stuff after the baby is born and getting worried, and yesterday I got an email update that said my student loan is paid off and we got a great return on our taxes! yay! is it ok to be happy about that? haha I dunno i get so confused when it comes to God and finance, because I know we need to be able to live, but then I know it shouldn't be something I worry about as much either. whoa. I just confused myself sorry...