June 29 I Saturday

Job 14-16

Acts 9:22-43

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”  —Philippians 4:19

A godly man I once knew, who is in heaven now, had a little saying: “For this I have Jesus.” Whatever situation or crisis arose, this remained his mantra. He printed this phrase on a little yellow velvet bookmark and distributed them to people. Even when he had a stroke and his speech became slurred, I remembered him struggling to reassure me with the words, “for this I have Jesus.”

I shared this story a short time later at an event in England. A few weeks later, I received a letter from a lady who attended that event and wanted to share her story with me. She said: “Two years ago, a friend of mine wrote to me and in the envelope with her letter, she had put a yellow velvet bookmark, which said, ‘For this I have Jesus.’ I thought it was lovely and placed it on the table. The next morning, the policeman came to my door and asked for me to go with him to the hospital because my husband was in a vehicle accident. When I got to the hospital, he had died. I had to identify his body and then go to school to pick up our two children and bring them home. It was the worst day of our lives. But when I got home, there on the table—left from the day before—was this little yellow velvet bookmark, ‘For this I have Jesus.’ I cannot tell you what those words have meant for me these last two years. So much so that we have written it on my husband’s tombstone, ‘For this we have Jesus.’”

The evidence of our authentic Christian life is that we will go through troubles, hardships and trials but in them, we are not alone. Paul, who had been imprisoned, beaten and shipwrecked, tells us, “We felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God…. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us again. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:9-10).

We may have no idea what our life will entail but we have the assurance that whatever crisis we face, grief we bear or struggle we encounter, it will not hinder us from receiving God’s grace. When we turn our eyes upwards, we are reminded that we are not alone.
May we find a sense of peace, hope and security in whatever circumstances we encounter because for this we have Jesus.

Prayer: Lord God, thank You for the reminder that no matter what I face, You are there with me. Strengthen my trust in You and help me to set my eyes upon You every moment of my life.