Quiet Time by the River

Yesterday I felt led to do my quiet time in the morning by the river instead of my home. And so I set out to walk to the river from my home, which is only a stone throw's away. The weather was a bit hot as it was late morning but I just walked on to a place where it would be shadier. Then I came to a place where it is rather cooling and I sat down and began listening to the worship songs.

Have you ever wondered why the psalmist said 'the trees are dancing for joy'? I always felt it weird when I read this until yesterday. As I worshipped, I realised that the trees were indeed dancing to the rhythm of the song I was listening to. When the wind blew and the leaves moved, they really looked like they were dancing and shaking! How marvellous is God's creation that even nature worships our Lord!

As I watched the song 'Worthy is the Lamb' which had snippets from the movie 'The Passion', when I saw Jesus being flogged and nailed to the cross, I could not help but cry again. My dear Jesus! Why did He have to die for us? I asked Jesus 'All that You have done for us, is it worth it?' and He replied 'Yes, it was all worth it.' 'But why?' I asked Him again, 'since we are unworthy of your love and we have sinned. We are always rebellious, always turning our backs on God.' Jesus just said 'You are just like lost sheep to me. My Father and I did this because We love you so.'

I then realised the gravity of the free choice that God had chosen to give us. He knew that not all of His children would choose Him, that He would lose some of us but yet He did it. He loved us too much to make us robots, programmed to love Him. He made us in His image. He would have truly won our hearts when He gave us free will and yet we still chose Him. But I felt that the price God had to pay was simply too much. He had to sacrifice His Only Beloved Son, the Darling of Heaven to die for all our sins.

For Jesus, taking the world's sins and diseases meant that when He hung on the cross, he would be separated from His Abba Father. This separation really broke Jesus' heart because He was so close to His Father that He cannot imagine not being answered by His Father even for a second. Afterall, They were always together even before creation. Even when Jesus came to earth in human form, His Father was always with Him. But at the cross, when Jesus cried out 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?', God cruelly turned His back on His precious Son so that He could turn His face to welcome all of us to His kingdom.

Did you know that whatever Jesus asked of the Father, the Father would always answer Him. Jesus said in John 11:42, before He resurrected Lazarus 'And I know that You always hear Me, but because of this people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe You sent Me.' And Jesus even extended that privilege to us in John 16:23 that whatever we ask the Father in His name, He will give us. But this was only possible after Jesus had suffered and died on our behalf, that our access to Abba God became direct.

My beloved friends, when we look at God's face, we see His glory. When we look at the cross, we see His heart. It is a heart of love, not a heart of enmity with us. Everything changed at the cross when Jesus said 'Look, I have made all things new.'