Our Finest Hour
God works in mysterious ways. Isaiah 55 says, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so much higher are his thoughts than our thoughts and his ways than our ways. When Pete and Suzan found out that she had a brain tumor with the diagnosis of stage four terminal brain cancer, God said to them, “Either this will be your greatest tragedy or it will be your finest hour.”
They determined that this trial would be their finest hour. Through this ordeal, God taught them four important life lessons. The first lesson is, Life is hard. Jesus said, in this world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. The second is, It’s not about you. Our purpose is that despite the tribulation, we would be to the praise of the glory of His grace. Third is, I’m not in control, He is. Therefore trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding… In all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths. He’s called us to empty ourselves of ourselves in service to him. This is the essence of the abundant life. The fourth lesson is, we’re all going to die. To live unto him is to die unto self.
This is our finest hour. Our lives are a calling to be remarkable, uncommon, and extraordinary. We are the elect of God, a peculiar people, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, separated from a world of darkness to spread the light of the gospel of truth.
Our finest hour is the precious occasion where we can praise and glorify God and not ourselves. Our finest hour is our opportunity to empty ourselves in service to our Lord by serving others the bread of life. According to James, count it all joy when you encounter trials. For the testing of your faith works patience. Then when patience has completed her work you will be perfect and entire wanting nothing.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed three times, Father, if there be any other way, let this cup (of pain, suffering, humiliation, and death) pass from me. Then Jesus concluded his prayer, “nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” This is the definition of prayer: to align my heart with God’s heart.
Jesus often slipped away from the crowd and separated himself to pray in the wilderness with his inner circle of Peter, James, and John. William Wilburforce said, “there are seasons where we need to get away and join our hearts with the Lord. These precious moments of prayer are the golden bonds that transcend this earth and unite us with heaven’s purpose.”
When Jesus walked out of the garden of Gethsemane in John 18:4 he was ready to do his father’s will. He said to Peter in verse 11, “shall I not drink the cup that my Father has given me?”
Jesus experienced all things like ordinary men yet without sin. His actions proved his words, “I always do my father’s will.” Jesus gladly submitted to do his father’s will. He was convinced of his Father’s loving kindness and tender mercy. Jesus knew by experience God’s answer to Paul’s prayer in 2 Corinthians 12 “My strength is made perfect in thy weakness. My grace is sufficient for thee.”
According to Romans 12:1-2, “I BESEECH you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Oswald Chambers’ devotional for November 1 says, “If God’s plan for my life is to break my heart to accomplish his will, then thank him for breaking my heart.” He’ll pick up the threads of our broken hearts and weave them together again according to his plan and his purpose: that we would be vessels fit for the master’s use.
Disciples of Christ are disciplined to follow in their master’s footsteps. After his prayer in John 19, Jesus taught by his example three essentials of godly servant-leadership:
1. He stood in the face of danger.
2. He bore up under suffering
3. He sacrificed himself for the good of others.
Jesus stood in the face of danger. When he walked out of Gesthemane, He knew all things that were coming against him. He said to the Romon cohort of 600 soldiers that came to arrest him, “whom do you seek?” He asked them twice. When they said, “Jesus the Nazarene”, he said, “I am he.” They all fell backwards at his words.
Jesus bore up under suffering. While he was being tortured and hanging on the cross, Jesus prayed for the soldiers who drove the nails through his hands and his feet, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Trough the pain and suffering Jesus taught us the meaning of Romans 5: Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
A godly leader sacrifices himself for the good of others. Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we would be made the righteousness of God in him.
The Lord asked Pete and Suzan, “can I trust you with a brain tumor.” They purposed in their heart, regardless of the outcome of this situation, we’ll glorify God through the trial and trough the tribulation.
In John 19:26, Jesus had the presence of mind to take care of his own family. He ordained John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” to look after his mother.
Jesus saw men not as they were but as they would be. Hebrews 12:2 is God’s answer to Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is Jesus’s example as the culmination of Hebrews chapter 11, God’s “hall of faith.”
According to Hebrews 12:1-3:
1. WHEREFORE seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses (of the faith of believing believers,) let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. His joy was your redemption and mine. The purpose for which he was called was to become the perfect payment for sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. His ultimate purpose was to sacrifice his innocent life in exchange for our guilty lives that we could be saved, set free, redeemed, and made righteous. That we would be holy and without blame before him in love, to the praise of the glory of God’s grace!
Through the trials and tribulations, Suzan came to understand her life’s motto: Joy is not the absence of pain, rather joy is the presence of the Lord.
Therefore rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
