Work is busy. God is obviously alive and well.
Day 5 – Christ’s Sacrifice
You've heard the following every Easter, think about the words following 'for':
Isaiah 53 (New American Standard Bible)
5But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
Because we transgressed, didn’t follow the rules, He was pierced.
Because of our sins, he was crushed.
He was mistreated and scourged, beaten in a horrible way, in order to give us health and well-being.
Jesus died to atone for our sins. But, Jesus suffered in order to give us a better life and to heal us.
Consider the previous verse:
Isaiah 53: (New International Version)
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
Jesus willingly took up our frailties and diseases. He accepted them and did so in the past tense. He has already suffered for our sorrows. He wasn’t stricken by God because of anything that Jesus Himself did, but was afflicted that we might not be.
John 16 (New International Version)
21A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.
We are the Lord’s joy, when we accept Him and all He has done.
John 10 (New International Version)
10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Satan wants us miserable. Jesus wants us abundant and joyful. We choose by the thoughts in our minds and the words on our lips. We choose to accept the sacrifice that Jesus already gave.