“But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?” -John 18:11
It is one thing to trust God when we are in need. It is one thing to trust God when life is running fairly smooth. But what about trusting God when things are not going to get better, not going to improve and may even get worse?
In John 18 they have come to arrest Jesus. Peter pulled a sword and cut off an ear of one of the soldiers (I’m not sure this says much about Peter’s skill with a sword). Verse 11 is Jesus’ response. He knows he is going to be abused, beaten, convicted and crucified until dead. And yet, Jesus is still willing to “drink from the cup of suffering.” Why? He trusts his Heavenly Father, even if the blessing will not come until his resurrection.
As Christians we trust in God not only for our salvation, but for everyday life. We understand trusting God when there is no where else to turn. We intuitively know we must trust him to turn things around for us because we can’t. But what about the suffering we all will face, in one way or another, that will never go away or be resolved in this life? It might be a medical diagnosis, a relationship that is broken, some kind of setback we cannot recover from. Can we trust like Jesus and drink our cup of suffering without complaining? Can we drink our cup of suffering trusting God’s purpose, goodness to us, and love for us?
Lord, when my cup of suffering comes that has no resolution, and where I have had this cup of suffering before and sometimes handled it well, and other times did not – take it all and grow my trust in you for all that is ahead of me.
JT
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