Anchor Devotional

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Words from the Cross: Abandonment

“About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘… My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” Matthew 27:46

Some of us know what true abandonment feels like. The painful hole it leaves is immense. But not one of us can imagine having the God of all creation turn His back on us as He did to His own Son. Many have accused God of forgetting them, but only One could rightly cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When God turned His face away from His Son, Jesus was bearing for you and me the complete abandonment our sin deserves. He took our place. He was forsaken by the Father so that we never would be. Isaiah wrote, “I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them” (41:17b).

How does a Christ follower keep from feeling abandoned when life seems to cave in? How does a young wife handle the untimely death of her husband? How does the believer manage through home foreclosures, severe strokes, estranged children, jail time? We trust in His promise that He will never leave us. We know that in suffering loss, we come to understand gain. Through Christ’s greatest suffering at Calvary, we have won it all.

SCRIPTURE FOCUS
Matthew 27:45-60

INSIGHT
“The Lord bless you and keep you … the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24, 26)

THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Joshua 17-18
Psalm 105
Romans 3-4

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