{"id":24102,"date":"2022-11-10T00:47:29","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T07:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-fallholidays-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-11-10T01:04:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T08:04:50","slug":"2022-jesusknows","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-jesusknows\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Sees, Cares, and Comes in Your Struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY RICK WARREN<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I will not abandon you as orphans\u2014I will come to you.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

John 14:18 (NLT)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sometimes you find yourself in situations you don\u2019t want and don\u2019t like. In fact, on some days you may feel like the storms of life threaten to drown you. So how do you keep from being blown over by life\u2019s devastating winds? Over the last few days, we\u2019ve looked at three antidotes for stormy days: Stay connected to your spiritual family, put into practice everything you\u2019ve learned, and turn your focus to the greatness of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the fourth antidote: Remind yourself how much Jesus cares.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Not only does Jesus see your struggle, but he also cares about your struggle. And not only does he care, but he also does something about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can see this pattern of Jesus seeing, caring, and doing in the story of Jesus walking on water in Mark 6:47-48:\u00a0\u201c<\/em><\/span>Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land.<\/em><\/span>\u00a0He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(NIV).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The disciples had four things going against them: It was dark, they were in the middle of a lake, they were alone, and\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cthe wind was against them<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How did Jesus respond? He didn\u2019t just stand on the shoreline and tell them what to do. Instead, he walked out to them\u2014on the water\u2014in their moment of desperation. He said,\u00a0\u201cTake courage! It is I. Don\u2019t be afraid<\/strong>\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Mark 6:50 NIV). Then Jesus climbed into the boat and the wind calmed down.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Jesus does in<\/span>\u00a0your moment of desperation. He cares enough to walk out to where you are\u2014wherever you are\u2014and intervene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Friends, that\u2019s the Gospel. God came to Earth and became one of us. He took on all of our problems and died on the cross for our sins. He didn\u2019t just shout instructions from heaven. He came to us and said, \u201cI\u2019ll solve the problem that you can\u2019t solve.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re going through right now. But I will tell you this: You may feel abandoned, but you\u2019re not. God sees you, cares for you, and is with you\u2014even in the darkest hour on the stormiest night.<\/span><\/p>\n

John 14:18 says,\u00a0\u201c<\/em><\/span>No, I will not abandon you as orphans\u2014I will come to you<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(NLT).<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter what problems you\u2019re up against, remind yourself that Jesus cares and let him come to you today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":24104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-24102","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/24102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/24102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24108,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/24102\/revisions\/24108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24102"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=24102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}