The Power of Purpose
Can you imagine what it was like for Jesus?
He had lived a perfect life. He loved. He served. He healed. In every way and in everything He did, He was The Word incarnate—the very Son of God. And yet the people He came to save rejected Him. They persecuted Him. And ultimately, they sentenced Him to the most horrific death a person could experience—crucifixion.
Now, while Jesus was fully God, He was also fully human. That means He experienced the same feelings and sensations you and I feel. He felt the pain, the emotion, the torture in a very real way. Scripture even shows us that, before He presented Himself to the authorities, He prayed…
“O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39, NKJV).
Yet He endured—the shame, the pain, the cross. He endured it all for me and you. Hebrews 12:2 (NKJV) reveals precisely how He was able to do that:
… Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith… for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
What enabled Jesus to make it through His greatest trial on the cross? It was what He remained focused on: His purpose. He fixed His eyes on the joy of what awaited Him on the other side of the crucifixion.
The same is true for us. No matter how difficult our circumstances are, we can make the conscious decision to declare, “God put me here. God called me. He is for me, not against me. There’s a divine call on my life; no trial will stop me!”
Like Jesus, we can keep our eyes fixed on the joy set before us.
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