Hello & greeting to you.
Matthew 27:46 stated that, “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?”
Do you know that it was at the cross that Jesus addressed His Father as “God” for the first time? He had always addressed His Father as “Father”. But at the cross, He addressed His Father as “God”. Jesus lost that Father-Son relationship when He was representing us and carrying our sins at the cross so that today, we can call God “Abba Father!” (Romans 8:15) and have a loving father-son relationship with God forever. Being a good boy or bad boy is just a behaviour of an individual for a season. The father-son relationship is still there for a believer and is ready to be reactivated (I’ll touch on this topic in near future).
In this passage, we learnt that:
- Jesus was forsaken by God and His world became very dark on that lonely hill so that in our darkest hour, God will always say to us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!” (Hebrews 13:5)
- At the time when Jesus needed God most, God turned His back on Him. God had to turn His back on His Son because His eyes are too holy to behold all the sin that was in His Son’s body. And because God turned His back on Jesus, He will never turn His back on us. Instead, we will see God’s face of favour shining on us all the time, just because of Jesus!
- Christ has also taken our place of no protection at the cross. For the first time, He gave up divine protection so that we can have it every day of our life! And because He became sin, He took our curse at the cross so that today, as we take His gift of righteousness, we will receive only blessings from God.
- Jesus received the full brunt of God’s wrath in His body once and for all when He carried our sins. All of God’s anger and condemnation fell on Him, consuming all our sins until God’s wrath was exhausted. Today, God is not angry with us. The body of Jesus absorbed everything — Our sins, curses, and God’s anger and condemnation. So live a life expecting to see not the judgment, but the goodness and blessings of God! There is no more condemnation in us in Christ. Jesus did it all for us on the cross. Do not believe the lies from the devil.
This week, our prayers will focus on Teenagers, Youth and Young Adult:
- Ps. 127: 3-5; “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court”. (We have 5 blessed & exciting boys sent by Heaven. Fantastic joy, blessings & challenges too. We won’t swap it for anything else. Hope someone will break our record soon).
- Eph. 6:1-4; “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord”.
- Thank God for our Teenagers, youth and young adult, and our children.
- Break the hold of every spirit blindfolding them against the Word of God.
- Break every curse, evil covenant and hereditary (ancestral curses especially amongst the Asians) problems passed down to them (knowingly or unknowingly).
- Break every addictions: drugs, computer games, smoking, excessive alcohol, over-eating, sex or pornography, TV program, late nights, etc,
- Commit them into the hands of God and break the hold of youthful exuberance upon them.
- Pray that there will be an increase appetite to read the Word of God, be trained and use the Rhema word in every situation.
- Pray that there will be a genuine increase for the love for God.
- Pray for their future, their academic under-taking, their admission to higher educational institution
- Pray that God will give them a good understanding on financial planning & good jobs.
- Pray that our youths & yong adults will arise and shine the glory of God in the church.
- Ask God to make meaning out of their lives. Realize their great future when in partnership with the Holy Spirit.
The Lord keep you & bless you.
Johnny
Call us anytime for a chat, we are here to serve you.