A short Good Friday devotional blog today.

“I will say to God, do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? Are your days as of man, or your years as a man’s years, that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin” - Job 10:2-6

Perhaps there are graces that would not be discovered if not for trials and affliction. Hope is like a star, not seen in the bright of day, only in the darkest night of adversity. Afflictions are the blackness in which God sets jewels of grace so we treasure the beauty, otherwise unnoticed. He sent Jesus to have eyes of flesh who sees me as man. Not only did he seek out my iniquity and search for my sin but he bore it for me on the cross. He granted me life through his steadfast love. So let us look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross.

“Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” - Hebrews 12: 2-3