Too Dutiful to Leave You Pitiful

“Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.”   
- Acts 2:24 (NKJV)

Today’s scripture is a bold statement: it was completely impossible for death to hold Jesus down. That is not a conclusion made in hindsight. It is because God the Father is too faithful to abandon His own.

It is the will of God that this truth sinks deep into your spirit until it becomes an unshakeable anchor for your life. God is too dutiful to leave you pitiful. It goes entirely against His divine character and track record. God’s integrity cannot be disputed. He is too faithful to leave His children stranded, broken, and helpless. The resurrection of Jesus is history’s ultimate proof that God does not leave His sons and daughters permanently abandoned in dark, low places.

Psalm 23 says, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because You are with me.” You might be in a tough phase of life today, but through the resurrection of Jesus, you have a guarantee that God never leaves people in the condition He finds them. God personally descended into the darkest grave and pulled Jesus up into the light. And because that same resurrection life dwells on the inside of you right now by the Holy Spirit, you can be sure that God is raising you out of that dark place. Abandoning you violates who He is.

God is too dutiful to leave you pitiful.

The resurrection was God’s public, undeniable stamp of approval, proving that Jesus’ sacrifice was fully accepted. If Jesus had carried even one single unatoned sin into the earth, the grave would have possessed the legal right to hold Him forever. But God approved Him and brought Him out. This has to be why Hebrews 12:1-2 encourages us and models Jesus to us by saying,  “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 

No matter how grim or dead things look in your life today, you do not have permission to lose hope. Our God is never finished until He says He is finished. He specializes in taking people from absolute rock bottom and exalting them to the highest places of victory. Your story does not end in defeat. Get ready, because your Father is stretching out His hand right now to lift you.

Song

“You′re too faithful to fail me 

You’re too faithful to disappoint me 

You′ve proven Yourself in my life 

And I’ve come to realize 

You’re too faithful to fail me.”

Prayer – Father, I rest in Your faithfulness today. Thank You for being too dutiful to leave me pitiful. Even when things are not the way I want, help my heart to trust that Your resurrection power is at work lifting me and restoring my joy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Bible in 1 Year: Psalms 46-48; Acts 28