The Root and Fruit of Freedom from Addictions: Part 2 How Jesus’ Suffering Brings Hope and Healing to Your Story
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@Glowimages: When Eve Ate The Apple[/caption]
Why would Jesus choose to remind His disciples continually that He “must suffer, die, and rise again” at the beginning, middle, and end of His ministry, and again immediately after He rose again? Why would Jesus include so much suffering in His plan of salvation anyway? (Luke 9:22; 22:25; 24:24-26; 44-46;
Heb. 2:10, 17-18).
If you have experienced the pain of being alone and abandoned—Jesus has been there when His disciples deserted Him in His time of need.
If you have been betrayed and/or abused physically, emotionally, or verbally by others who abused their positions of authority—Jesus has been there when the religious leaders and soldiers stripped Him naked and abused Him in every way possible
(Is. 52:14).
If you have been tempted to numb your pain in your deepest, darkest moment and tempted to believe that God or others have forsaken you—Jesus has been there when He hung on the cross, carrying our sins, crying out “Why have You forsaken Me?”
Because Jesus has suffered in “every way” we have (in principle), He can identify with us, He can connect His story with our stories. Whenever we realize that someone else has gone through a similar experience, we tend to increase our hope and trust. That means that as we see the ways Jesus has experienced everything we have, our wounded hearts can begin to trust our Wounded Healer, who fulfilled prophecy not only to suffer like us, but also to “rise with healing in His wings,” (Mal. 4:2).