7 April 2021

I was feeling sorry for myself. NO Easter for a second year in a row. No Church ceremonies, celebrations, no family gatherings around the table of Christ or around the dining table!

I know it was supposed to be a joyous day on Easter Sunday but I was very BLAH!

My husband and I were in quarantine. Still a whole week to go. Can’t go out. Stuck.

After crying for most of the morning I looked  and felt terrible. I tried to perk myself up a bit for a zoom meeting with the family. I even brushed my hair and dressed up a bit so as to not “scare” too many people but mainly to appear “ok“ for everyone.

I think I knew how the two disciples felt on the way to Emmaus after Jesus’ death. Devastated, full of Sorrow, Life is the pits! And some of the thoughts would have been “Where do we go from here?”

Let’s get as far away from Jerusalem as possible. ALL is lost!

And then JESUS who IS SO MERCIFUL met them where they were at.

That’s what happened to me. He met me where I was at.

Through all my blubbering and “woah is me”, my mind cleared and I could see and feel the Lord’s Presence. Actually, He had never left my side.

I felt (and to be honest a lot of it was my feelings) that I had been abandoned. Why here Lord? Why this isolation? Why especially at Easter?

And to be truly honest I had been feeling “left out” by God. Forgotten. Ignored even. Just trudging along daily, putting one foot in front of the other. Not seeming to go anywhere. Do anything. So, this 14 day quarantine over the Easter period just brought it all to a head.

Then I felt drawn to read 1 Peter 1:3-8

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, ⁷ so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,

1 Peter 1:3-8 NRSV

I was a bit taken aback.

Yes I believed Jesus had Risen again and given us a new HOPE, an inheritance as His Son or Daughter but I was not suffering a trial? Was I? Not like those people right now living in Myanmar where their affliction was real and desperate. Not like the children slaughtered there and in Nigeria and in many other places in the world. Not like those killed for their beliefs, starved and tortured by regimes trying to show their power and might.

Not like those countries suffering the Pandemic so badly due to inability to socially distance, use hand sanitizer……

Then I read this same line in the Message bible.

“I know how great this makes you feel (the Resurrection of Our Lord), even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime.”

1 Peter 1:6 (The Message)

Ok I get that – I am being aggravated right now.

“Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.”

1 Peter 1:7 (The Message)

The pieces started to fall into place. Right now I am being proved, purified, put through the wringer – even if not physically but mentally and spiritually.

My character was being examined and being purified by things God sent my way, by just life’s circumstances, even if nowhere near like what other people in the world are going through.

It is the first part of this scripture that I need to hold on to. Jesus Christ our Living Hope. It is HE who had given us a brand new Life NOW and into the FUTURE. The Day is coming when we ALL will have our lives healed and whole.

I needed to NOT focus on the problems, aggravations in my Life.

So just as Christ before His suffering and death in the garden of Gethsemane said to his disciples. “Can you not stay awake with me one hour?” (Matt 26:40)

I felt God say to me, ‘I know this aggravates you but can you not stay awake, stay isolated, stay in quarantine not One hour, One week, but One fortnight….. for ME. And my intentions?’

And so, on this Easter Sunday 2021 I felt like I too came out of the tomb and could REJOICE over what Jesus had done for me and for who He was. I too could REJOICE over Jesus overcoming my aggravations. (For it was not in my power that this occurred)

MAY HIS NAME BE WORSHIPED AND ADORED!

Happy Easter everyone and remember He is Risen in your Life if you let Him in.

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups. If you would like more information please click HERE.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

How often do you focus on the aggravations in your life rather than on the victory Jesus won on the cross?

How can you rejoice in the Lord’s victory in your life?