Yesterday I took a much needed day away from my computer and tried to stay off my phone as much as I could.  It was a much needed mental break that I didn’t realize I needed.  But I’m back today!

I wanted to take a minute to tell you all how thankful I am for you taking the time to read these posts.  Thank you for joining me on this 30 day journey.  I pray that God speaks to you through the words that He places on my heart.  I’ve had someone contact me almost everyday and share with me how these posts are encouraging them and I am so thankful for that because it encourages me to continue to write.

I thought that I would do one post for days 11, 12 and 13 as they are a special time for Christians everywhere.  We’ve all heard the phrase “It’s Friday but Sunday’s coming!”  We know that Jesus died on Friday and we know that he rose from the dead on Sunday.

But what about Saturday?

The day in between death and life, despair and joy, bad news and good news.  Why isn’t there anything about this day?

I can imagine that the disciples were devastated and grieving. Even though they knew this was going to happen, they were probably still in shock.  I can’t imagine the battle in their minds and their hearts going on at that time.

In Matthew 17:22-23 Jesus told them,

“The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Yet they forgot.  And it makes you wonder how in the world could they forget?  Jesus Himself, in the flesh told them repeatedly that this would happen.

But we can’t blame them, can we?  I can be prone to forget His promises, too.  In the middle of those seasons where all feels lost and I am waiting on a miracle or an answer or something from Him, I also forget.

We would all love to skip over “the Saturdays” of life and go straight to the “Sundays.”  We don’t want to experience the pain and suffering for too long.  We want Him to act now.

But sometimes that’s not the case.

On Sunday when Jesus appeared to them, the Bible says that they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.  And Jesus says to them in verse 38-39,

“Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?  See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.  Touch me, and see.  For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

They had given up.  They were troubled and full of doubt.  Matthew shares that when Jesus appeared He rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart.  They refused to believe those that said they had seen Jesus after He had risen. (Matthew 16:14)

Sometimes in our lives, we do as the disciples did.  We allow ourselves to give up and begin to doubt God’s promises for our lives.

Have you given up on Jesus?  Have you turned away from Him?  Do people tell you about Jesus and what He can do and you refuse to believe them?  Have you allowed your heart to be hardened?

I’ve been there.  After my daddy died, I quit.  I quit God.  I quit all things church.  I was angry at God and for a solid year refused to pick up my Bible.  I turned to alcohol to numb my pain and refused to believe that anything good could come from any of this.  I was angry with God.  How could He heal my dad time and time again and then not do it this time?  I didn’t understand.  I didn’t want to understand.

And in the middle of my struggle, when I refused to talk to God and I felt like He was silent, the truth was….He was still there.  He was patient and waiting on me until there was a day when I felt Him say that’s enough.  And I think He knew I needed Him to intervene in my life.  Like the disciples, I needed God to remind me that He was alive and still at work in my life.

We may not have Jesus in the flesh showing us His hands and His feet, but we have His Word.  We have an entire book full of stories and wonders and miracles and promises.  It’s all there!  We are called blessed because we believe without seeing, John 20:29 says,

“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

But y’all, one day.  When it’s our time or better said, when it’s His time….we will see Him.  We will touch Him, we will see the scars for ourselves and we will embrace our Savior.  And I can not wait until that day because it makes every single struggle, pain and hardship of my life completely worth it.

1 John 3:2 says,

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.”

That day is going to be amazing.  That day is where our focus should be.  When we are in the middle of a struggle and we are struggling to believe, remember the promise of Heaven where,“He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4

We need to be patient and persistent.  And we need to trust that just as God did not leave Jesus alone in the worst day of His life, He isn’t going to leave us alone either.

Today, we pray and ask God for those that are in the middle of a struggle.  They are in the middle of despair and joy, death and life….we pray and ask God that if they do not know Him that they will come to know Him for who He is.  And for those that are His children, if they are stuck in doubt and their hearts are hardened, we pray that God will soften their hearts and strengthen their faith.

Don’t give up on God.  Turn back to Him.  I promise, He will never fail you.  Things may be crazy right now, but His promises are yes and amen.  And what does that mean?  It means that His promises are unwaveringly true.  God is faithful, He is consistent and He has a plan for your life.  Don’t let your faith waver when you get stuck between a Friday and a Sunday.  Stay persistent and continue to trust God that Friday may have sucked, you may be stuck on Saturday but Sunday is surely coming!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!