Feeling overwhelmed? Thinking there's no way you're going to make it through all the things that are coming toward you? Have no idea what you're going to do?
Such struggles aren't new. In fact, just this week while reading chapter 20 in the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles, I learned that Jehoshaphat (the king of Judah) felt that way. He'd been told that a huge army was marching toward Jerusalem (where he lived). He knew that, apart from divine intervention, there was no way he and his people would survive the attack.
So the king and all the people turned to God for help. King Jehoshaphat's entire prayer is so beautiful. (I encourage you to read all of it.) But I'm going to memorize the words in verse 12 so that I can repeat them to God the next time I feel overwhelmed by the things that are coming at me. Perhaps you'd like to do the same.
While attending a funeral service one afternoon, I listened carefully to the words in a familiar song* about the death of Jesus on the cross. When I heard the words, "He knew me, yet He loved me," my mind fixated on them instead of those in the rest of the song.
As the truth in those seven words grabbed my attention, it seemed as if I'd never heard them before. Jesus knew all about me--including all my sins and my failures; yet, He loved me enough to die for me. I'd heard that truth all my life, but it had never impacted me as it was doing at that moment.
He loved me, knowing that many times I would disappoint Him, that I would ignore Him, that I would often think and talk and behave in ways uncharacteristic of and unbecoming for a child of God.
The words "He knew me, yet He loved me" are still stuck in my mind. I realize that He knew me then; He knows me now. He loved me then; He loves me now!
My response continues to be like that of Charles Wesley who wrote these words immediately following his conversion in 1738: "Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me?"
He died, not just for me, but for you, too! Why? Because He loves us more than we can ever comprehend.
*When He Was on the Cross, 1983, by Michael Payne and Ronny Hinson
