What If...

Now may the LORD value my life, even as I have valued yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles.” [1 Samuel 26.24]

Beneath the surface of this verse, I believe is a meaning beyond normal human comprehension.

What if our quality of life is based on the value we place on the lives of others?

The question crossed my mind today, as I prayed for many people, "Am I willing to accept upon myself their troubles so that they might be freed from them?"

In other words, am I willing to lay down my life so that the lives of those I pray for might be lifted up?

Is that not exactly what Jesus both taught and demonstrated that we should do?

Do I have faith, like Jesus, that as I invite upon myself the troubles of others, that I too will be raised up from the "death" of those troubles? Do I believe God's Word that if His Spirit, the same that dwelt in Jesus, dwells in me, that I too will be raised in my mortal body?

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. [Romans 8.11]

Does this not make "our cross" (that Jesus told us to bear) make a little more sense then? Jesus went to the cross, not for His own sin, but for the sin of the world - all who will believe. If we are to take up our own cross, does it not make sense then that our cross is the place we, like Jesus, suffer for the sin of others (with the full intent that we will rise above the death it promises)?

Here is where our forgiveness of others is paramount! But is is likewise paramount that we are forgiven by others... supported entirely by scriptures that tell us to confess our faults to one another!

How serious will we take Jesus' words?

Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth. [John 17.18-19]

So, if we are made "holy" by Jesus, then we are thereby "qualified" as a sacrifice for others! Because Jesus made us holy, we can take up our cross ON BEHALF OF OTHERS! Because...

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. [John 15.13]

My head is spinning right now... I feel like a cloud has been lifted or that I have been enabled to see more deeply into the truth of God's Word.

What if... what if troubles on my life (not obviously associated with my own sin) are indicators that someone in or around my life needs forgiveness?

But, the world won't like it! Frankly, most of the "church" won't like it either! And, nothing should more confirm the accuracy of this than to be rejected JUST LIKE JESUS for doing good.

Wow.

Father, You overwhelm me. Be glorified in my life as it looks like Jesus in the world.