Key Passage
Then Jesus went back to the followers. Again Jesus found them sleeping. Their eyes were very tired. The followers did not know what they should say to Jesus.
— Mark 14:40 ERV (Read Full Text)
Key Thought
Sometimes we just fail. Maybe it's because we don't understand the gravity of a behavior. Maybe it's because we're just too weary and distraught to do what we need to do. Maybe it's because we're weak or lazy or … However, the bottom line is that we are flawed people living in a fallen world. Despite our best intentions, our flesh sometimes triumphs over our faith. I can't think of anything that reminds us of our desperate need for Jesus to be our Savior more than Jesus' closest followers' letting him down in his moment of greatest need. Yet he dies for them and then calls them back to his service. What a message of grace triumphing over sin, disappointment, failure, and death.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I pray in your name so often to praise, thank, and request things from the Father, that I sometimes forget to thank you for your incomparable love, mercy, and grace to die for us—to die for me—when I have let you down and hurt you with my failure and sin. Thank you! Thank you, dear Father, for such a divine plan to deal with human weakness and sin. All praise be to you, and to your Son, in whose name I praise and thank you. Amen.
Related Scriptures
Christ died for us while we were still weak people. We were living against God, but at the right time, Christ died for us. Very few people will die to save the life of another person, even if that other person is a good person. If the person is a very good person, then someone might be willing to die for that person. But Christ died for us while we were still sinners. In that way God showed us that he loves us very much. We have been made right with God by Christ's blood (death). So through Christ we will surely be saved from God's anger. I mean that while we were God's enemies, God made friends with us through the death of his Son. So surely, now that we are God's friends, God will save us through his Son's life. And not only will we be saved, but we are also very happy now. We are happy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is because of Jesus that we are now God's friends.
— Romans 5:6-11
Christ is the head of the body. (The body is the church.) Everything comes from him. And he is the Lord who was raised from death. So in all things Jesus is most important. God was pleased for all of himself to live in Christ. And through Christ, God was happy to bring all things back to himself again—things on earth and things in heaven. God made peace by using Christ's blood (death) on the cross. At one time you were separated from God. You were God's enemies in your minds, because the evil things you did were against God. But now Christ has made you God's friends again. Christ did this by his death while he was in his body. Christ did this so that he could bring you before God. He brings you before God as people who are holy, with no wrong in you, and with nothing that God can judge you guilty of.
— Colossians 1:18-22
In the past, your spiritual lives were dead because of your sins and the things you did wrong against God. Yes, in the past you lived doing those sins. You lived the way the world lives. You followed the ruler of the evil powers over the earth. That same spirit is now working in those people who refuse to obey God. In the past, all of us lived like those people. We lived trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We were {evil} people. We should have suffered God's anger because of the way we were. We were the same as all other people. But God's mercy is very great, and God loved us very much. We were {spiritually} dead. We were dead because of the things we did wrong against God. But God gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God's grace (kindness). And God raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavenly places. God did this for us who are in Christ Jesus. God did this so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace. God shows that grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus. I mean that you are saved by grace. And you got that grace by believing. You did not save yourselves. It was a gift from God. No! You are not saved by the things you have done. So no person can boast {that he saved himself}. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would do good things. God had already planned those good things for us. God had planned for us to live our lives doing those good things.
— Ephesians 2:1-10
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