Jesus approached His disciples with an opportunity of a lifetime promising He will make them fishers of men and immediately they dropped everything and followed him. He performed many miracles and lived life with these men for three years. One day, He was
having dinner with his disciples and He told them He was leaving them soon
and there Peter professed that even in His absence, He will never deny Him. And
Jesus was eventually crucified and left them by themselves.
Have you ever been in the absence of Jesus? Do you ever feel abandoned by Christ?
Why does Jesus leave us alone on our own sometimes?
To test what was within. Your faith,
love and commitment to something is really tested in the absence of the object. That applies
to everything e.g. In a relationship, the commitment to your partner is
really tested in the absence of the person. We are committed in church but our lives out of church is the true test of our commitment to the things of God.
Adversity introduces a man to who he really
is. When everything is good and we can feel the hand of God supporting us it is easy to remain the person God expects us to be, but
when adversity comes, the real you introduces him or herself, making adversity
the best place God could evaluate us.
Are your testimonies of God still the same even
when you go through adversity? Job is a great example, He said; 'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.' The disciples of Jesus were the opposite, even though they had spent 3 years with Jesus, but after leaving them for three days their testimony
changed.
Jesus’ absence is like a palette ball. This
ball is a round ball for exercise. You balance yourself on the ball and it works
muscles that have never been worked or are not worked under circumstances. The moments
we feel Jesus is not showing His face to us are moments where he is helping us exercise
muscles of our faith that has never been used in a quest to keep our faith as
strong and as fit as possible.
In times of adversities what should you do
rather than reacting by changing your commitment to God?
Adapt the strategies of a smart boxer in a ring
who has just been beaten down by His opponent. The referee is counting to ten,
the fans are raging to see if he will stand up again. He stays down till the
count of 7, 8,9, before getting up. He spent some time down there to strategise and regain his
stamina rather than rush up to be beat down again. He did not give up neither
did He rush to any quick decision that will cause any harm. So reflect on what
you are going through and come back up and out of the adversity to regain carry on your relationship with Christ
Peter and the rest of disciples did not
come out of adversity to Christ, they returned to their old ways. They failed the test of love and commitment. They lost the
plot and did not even recognise him. They were so far off that they were
willing to follow anybody. Jesus told them to cast their nets, even though they
did not recognise him, they were willing to throw their net to just anybody’s
command. In God’s test of our faith, do we abandon Him and forget Him to the
extent where anything or god goes? We deny God in times of adversities
of trial, and when we comes back to us we are found naked and have fallen short of
His glory.
Start questioning yourself from now, Lovest
thou God, than the things He offers you? more than miracles, more than life,
more than your job, more than your family, more than fame, more than everything
else in life? Let your answer be yes, because if not, when he hides from you will not be able to stay committed to him. .
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