1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian PATIENCE | Page 6

most often the consequences of your disobedience remain. It is not the end, however, as God is able to bring good out of a bad situation, even when the situation is of your own making. Samson’s story would illustrate this well, i.e. after he had repented to God for his disobedience, he achieved the greatest military victory of his entire life and it is said that more Philistines died as a result of his death than during the course of his life. King David, too, after his sin with Bathsheba, walked through the valley of the darkness of disobedience. He too, when confronted with the reality of his sin, repented and God was able to do a great work through David after the restoration of his relationship with God. Today would be a good day to evaluate our own lives and if we our walking through a dark place we need to ask ourselves the question, is this the darkness of God’s desire or could it be that I am walking through the darkness of my own disobedience? Prayer Thought: won’t you pray today, knowing full well that our God is a God of second chances and that should you need to repent and restore your relationship with God, that you will do so, naming to Him the nature of your sin that has led you to this dark place and then trust Him to pour out His love and grace and then restore you, renew you and refocus you for all that He has planned for you ahead. WEDNESDAY Matthew 27 v 45 – 51 For the next five days I would like to take you into the life of Jesus to what, without a doubt would have been considered to have been his darkest hour. You will find in each one of the gospels that story of the crucifixion. Jesus’ response to those last hours of pain and anguish teach us how to respond in the context of dark times. Whilst Jesus was on the cross he cried out a number of times, I would like to focus on five of the cries of Christ on the cross that will lead us systematically through a progression of guidelines and teach us how to handle our darkness. The first cry of Christ, Matthew 27 v 46, “…My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” This cry is the cry of a broken heart; of a man at His very lowest. In the last few hours He had been betrayed by Judas, denied by His friend Peter, deserted by His disciples and, worst of all, forsaken by His Father; you can’t get lower than that. Darkness, at this point in the Crucifixion story, then covered the earth. There are times when we may feel the same way, but might I remind you when we feel forsaken, it is exactly that, a feeling. We all know that feelings are fickle and do not often tell the truth. God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us and He tells, through Paul’s writing in Romans 8 v 35 – 39, that “…nothing can separate us from the love of Christ…”; that means NOTHING!!