He said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30 (NLT)
I’ve been sick. One day I realized that I was dizzy. You know, room spinning type of dizzy that makes you nauseous. It started about 2 weeks ago and has made life a little difficult. I waited a couple of days and went to the doctor. They diagnosed it as vertigo and gave me some medicine. It didn’t help. I waited a few more days and got worse. I went back. This time, they realized I had a sinus infection and prescribed medicine.
During this time, it was really hard for me to spend what I call quality time with God. Praying was hard. I tend to pray either journaling or kneeling. Both of those things set off the vertigo. I had a hard time reading. Honestly, some days I had a hard time thinking. What I could do was just pray short prayers talking to God about everything going on here and there as I tried to make it through my day. That’s it. That’s what I did.
This morning, I was reflecting on the last two weeks. I’ve felt God’s presence strongly. He’s answered my prayers and spoke to me about different things. I’ve had peace. As I pondered this, I was grateful. I was grateful that it doesn’t matter if I follow my routine. It doesn’t matter if I spend 5 minutes in prayer on and off throughout the day or if I spend an hour in concentrated prayer. It doesn’t matter if I read my Bible here and there or if I spend an hour in it. God sees. He sees me.
He isn’t up there checking some list. He isn’t saying “You are not doing this right.” He is drawing near to his child (all of his kids) inviting, encouraging and responding.
It reminds me of why we celebrate Good Friday. When Jesus died he said “It is finished.” All my striving to earn God’s favor was finished. All the activity I think I have to do to get there (where ever that is), done. Jesus took all that away. He sacrificed his life so I would know that no matter what was happening, I was loved.
I want to live my life in the “It is finished.” I want to remember that while I am called to be in relationship with Jesus, while because I love him I want to live my life for him, nothing I do earns his love or guarantees my place in the Kingdom. That was already done so many Fridays ago.
Living in the “It is finished” is living free. Don’t you want to live in the “It is finished” too? There is a peace in that place. Living in that peace is how we were meant to live.