Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 54b-55)
There have been a great many worship songs released in recent memory that talk about the grave. So much so, that it has got me thinking periodically of the many times that I have been there. Times where I was duped and times where I willing walked back in and plunked myself down. Enough times for feelings of condemnation and great guilt to settle in. During a time of prayer I heard God whisper, “There’s no shame in the grave.”
So let me say to you, “There is no shame in the grave — as long as you don’t stay there.” Without the grave there would be no redemption. The grave was a means to an end. While it would have been nice for Jesus not to have had to go there, it was necessary. It was God’s perfect plan for man to abide with him always and never need a Savior, but man had other ideas. God’s plan is the same for us today. He wants to abide with us and in us. He wants us to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and be led by him. But as with Adam and Eve, sometimes we get our own ideas and decide to make different arrangements, whose end result is not what God would have for us. We end up in the grave.
When God spoke that to me, I found myself thinking of a seed. What is the purpose of a seed? A seed’s one and only purpose, is to produce life — fruit. In John 12:24, Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” A seed by itself cannot accomplish its intended purpose. I dare you to set a single seed on your kitchen counter and see what happens. I would bet a large sum of money that what happens is a big, fat nothing. (If I were a betting person, that is.) For a seed to achieve its full potential it must be buried. Why? It’s not because the seed is averse to sunlight and prefers the dark. It needs the soil. Most importantly, it needs the moisture of the soil. When a seed is buried, the moisture permeates the outer shell of the seed and softens it so the life inside can break forth. In that same fashion, the water of God’s Word softens our hard hearts so that we may bring forth fruits worthy of His sacrifice.
Paul wrote, in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So don’t think that you’re alone in the ground. We’ve all been there. Some of us more than once. God is the God of the second chance (and third, and forth…) Whatever circumstances in your life that are weighing you down, it’s time to allow them to be washed away. Don’t let them (or the memory of them) hold you back any longer. God can and will redeem any circumstance. We aren’t always free from the consequences of our choices but “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
The enemy seeks to make our time in the grave a permanent stay. His plan is to weigh us down with shame so that we never fulfill God’s plan for us. Don’t let him. Romans 8:1 tells us that, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” For believers, the grave should be a temporary place. A place of restoration, where God waits to raise us up. A place, not to camp, but to move through from victory to victory. So, dear one, if you find yourself in the grave, turn to God. Trust him. He truly can turn your mourning to dancing and your ashes to beauty.
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory
(Stuart Townsend “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”)
Things Pondered 