Our Daily Bread -- Never Forsaken March 26, 2016

Read: Psalm 22:1-10 Bible in a Year: Joshua 22-24; Luke 3 Jesus cried out in a loud voice, . . . “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” —Matthew 27:46 Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky said, “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” With that in mind, I read an online article describing “The Top 8 Deadliest Prisons in the World.” In one of these prisons every prisoner is held in solitary confinement. We are intended to live and relate in relationships and community, not in isolation. This is what makes solitary confinement such a harsh punishment. Isolation is the agony Christ suffered when His eternal relationship with the Father was broken on the cross. We hear this in His cry captured in Matthew 27:46: “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ (which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’).” As He suffered and died under the burden of our sins, Christ was suddenly alone, forsaken, isolated, cut off from His relationship with the Father. Yet His suffering in isolation secured for us the promise of the Father: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). Christ endured the agony and abandonment of the cross for us so that we would never be alone or abandoned by our God. Ever. —Bill Crowder Father, thank You for making it possible for me to be Your child. I will be eternally grateful for the price Jesus paid to make that relationship possible. Thank You for the promise that You will never abandon me. Those who know Jesus are never alone. INSIGHT: Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God affected their relationship with Him, with each other, and with the good world God had created for them to live in and tend (Gen. 3:8-19). Too often we think of Jesus’s work—His life, death, and resurrection—solely in terms of what it means for our relationship with God. But the redemptive work of Christ extends beyond reconciling us to God. Jesus inaugurated a kingdom that is about restoring what was broken at the fall. Share your thoughts on today’s devotional on Facebook or odb.org.

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Our mission is to make the life-changing wisdom of the Bible understandable and accessible to all. Our vision is to see people of all nations experiencing a personal relationship with Christ, growing to be more like Him, and serving in a local body of His family. To read today's Our Daily Bread online visit www.odb.org. Copyright © 2016, Our Daily Bread Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI 49555 USA. Written permission must be obtained from Our Daily Bread Ministries for any further posting or distribution. Scriptures taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved.   Our Daily Bread Ministries | 3000 Kraft Ave | Grand Rapids, MI 49512 Manage Your Subscription.