Eloi Eloi, Lema Sabachthani

Matias Uribe - February 23rd, 2024

This phrase circled my brain for a few days and I knew what it meant but didn’t know its significance. In the current state of campus (at least in what I am involved in) we are in a state of transition. If we think about it, we are always in a state of transition; there is no “I have made it” in life until the day you are laid down in the ground. However, the Lord nudged me to look into it more and discover what it might mean for those of us going through a period of transition. So we start with this, a word of encouragement that starts with the outcry of Jesus. “Eloi Eloi, Lema Sabachthani” My God, My God Why have you abandoned me. Now many of you are like how in the world is that encouraging? Don’t worry it is what I thought as well but the Lord revealed something fascinating about what this means for us. At the crux of human history the God of Creation seemingly abandons His Son which sounds so against the character of God. We know how the story ends which is actually not the focus of this devotional, I wanted to narrow it down to ‘My God, My God, Why have you abandoned me?’ This statement is a declaration of something of which we all feel when we don’t feel or see God move in our lives. There is a saying in Christian culture that says “The teacher stays silent during the test” which in some cases could be true but most of the time its not. The Lord unraveled this mysterious silence by saying “It’s more like God stays quiet like a father is when he is waiting for his child to stop complaining and ask for help,” In moments of abandonment we often rush head first into blaming the situation, other people, or even God. It’s not until we stop complaining and we ask God “Where are you?” that He will tell you, “I have been here the whole time, I was just waiting for you to let me show you what I have already done.” We see power of the understanding of this principle when we see in Mark 15:39 (the chapter Jesus utters those words in the first place) and Psalm 22 (the chapter Jesus is quoting from). In Mark 15 we see a gentile notice Jesus was who He said He was and in Psalm 22 that the writer has been graciously reminded of what God has brought him through and a hope that He will do it again. So the encouragement is this, we may not have the answer for what to feel or what to do in the time we are currently in especially as we head to a foreign land with foreign people where we might feel disconnected from God but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In this period of uncertainty and transition from one stage into another we must trust 2 things; What He has will be Good and will bring Him Glory.

Praises:

We are almost a week out from leaving! We are almost fully funded for all members in the team and what a blessing it has been to see how the Lord has worked His loving hand into all things.

Prayer:

These past few weeks have been extremely busy and there has been very few opportunities to rest both physically and spiritually. Prayers on this week for rest and a fresh fire to light up as we step into foreign land with Him.