Prayers at the Cross

 

    Prayer at the cross is prayer of freedom and stability.  You go to the cross for your first real prayer of salvation.  Then you go to the cross to let things go, cleansing, and maintenance in your life.  The cross hold significance of peace in the midst of pain, hope, and a new path.

    Jesus was beaten gruesomely.  Don't you think he could have stopped it at any point?  He could have spoken and the tortures would have died instantly.  However, he endured.  Why?  He did it for you.  He allowed all those humiliating and painful things to happen so that you had the choice to have a relationship with God.  He did it because the plan went into motion the moment Adam and Eve allowed sin to enter the world.  He did it because he is truth and it was written in God's Word.

    Jesus was God in human form.  He is still God, but no longer living the human life.  He lived as a human so we would know he understood everything we experience.  He lived great agony and emotional distress.  He does not judge those who endure.  Instead he hurts with you.  He took it a step further by accepting the cross.  He bore your sins and their heavy burden as if they were his own.  The cross is heavy, but sin is heavier.  He carried the cross with all of your sins on it because he was the only one who could bare the weight.

    Jesus was innocent of all sin, but died a sinners death.  He was treated like the worst kind of criminal when everyone knew that he was innocent, even if they may not have liked or appreciated him.  He died as a condemned criminal, but was as pure as snow falling from the sky.  He did this because he knows what love really is.  Agape love goes further than any other love.  He allowed people to condemn him, so you can have salvation.

    Jesus' death released sin's wrath and fury from God upon His own son.  Do you really think that is something God wanted to do?  He did it because He is truth, love, and would never go against His Word.  

    The law of man, our government, and the common people were all intertwined that day.  God's law was always firm and set clear boundaries, but Jesus' life, death, and resurrection gave them life.  It meant that all that additional laws that people decide to put on other people are unnecessary burdens.  God set all the laws that need to be set.

    When Jesus hung on the cross the mockery sign was done in three languages to make it clear what the people thought of Jesus.  Hebrew is the language God chose for His people, yet it was used against Jesus that day.  Latin was the Roman Government language to make it official.  Greek was the common language of the people.  There was no way that everyone there did not get the message.

    People made a mockery of Jesus.  They only saw a man that they could crush.  God saw something different.  He saw his son hanging on the cross naked, in pain, humiliated, but still loved.  Appearances are not always the same as reality.  Your prayers may seem to lay on the cross, but God hears them.  The reality is that our goal is to join Jesus in Heaven.  Our prayers laid at the cross will help us endure now, but the reality does not change.  

    Jesus was crushed for you and all of our foolish decisions.  He loves you.  He advocated (prayed) for you even on the cross.  What will you do with that truth is up to you.  Will you lay your prayers at the cross and find redemptive freedom?

Isaiah 53:4-6, Matthew 27:45-46, Luke 23: 34-46, John 19:17-24, Romans 8:1-4, & 1 Peter 2:21-25