JOHN 13:1 – Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

THEME OF THE DAY. IT WILL BE ENOUGH. Life is hard. Life is burdensome. Life is wearisome and life is also good. However, if we put our lives on a set of scales, the “good seasons” will not tip the scale in its favor. Hard, burdensome, and wearisome will be the majority lot in all of our lives. It must be so. It can’t be otherwise for three reasons.

First, life is hard, burdensome, and wearisome because of sin. Right after our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God, He placed the curse upon all things. He dealt with the serpent first, then the human beings turned sinners. “To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:16-19). Friends, there is no escaping the difficulties of life. No relationship, no experience, no vacation, no drug, no hobby, no entertainment, no change of scenery, no new environment, no material thing . . . nothing will remove the hardness, burdens, and weary nature of life. They are ultimately the results of sin and no human being can remove the individual pain from God’s curse upon a sinful humanity. Now, please don’t think hard of God. Or worse, don’t blaspheme Him by saying, “Not fair. Unloving.” He is fair, loving, just and holy. The curse is necessary. We have sinned against a loving, holy, and just God. And the penalty in this life is a hard, burdensome, and weary life. Don’t waste time and energy trying to avoid this result of the curse. It won’t happen,

Next, life is hard, burdensome, and wearisome because the Lord Jesus promised it would be. He said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). What God promises, God delivers, and though this passage is to the disciples and the pain of persecution they will encounter for walking with Him, the principle of suffering in this life, for Him, and as a result of sin, applies to all of us. We should be prepared and expect a “tribulation-filled” life not only for standing for Christ but as a result of the curse.

A third reason for life being hard, burdensome, and wearisome is because this was preached to the early church and witnessed throughout church history as a reality in life. The Apostle Paul told the believers in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch “that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21-22). God’s people are not delivered from difficulties in life, but we have strength to endure and prosper through them. And that takes us back to the scripture of the day. Friends, there is one thing that will always prove sufficient to help us through life’s difficulties. It will never fail us. It is always available to us, and will lift up every hurting heart in every life difficulty. It is the love of Christ. It is His love that overflows in abundance to His people. It is His love that strengthens His people. And it is His love that will take us all the way home to heaven, even as we travel on the roads of life’s difficulties. It won’t make them easier, but it will empower us to see them for what they are – temporary and purposeful in God’s eternal plans for His people.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for Your love which will always prove to be enough in my life.”

QUOTE: “Lean on the love of Jesus in all of life’s twists and turns. It will be sufficient to carry you through all of them.”