Enduring the Process/ Good Friday

...Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.(Hebrews 12:2 ESV).

Results through Process: In our pushbutton, immediate results, instant gratification world, our thinking tends to ignore process and focus only on results--"good" results. Key to our misunderstanding of "good" lies in our cultures definition of what it is. We've all heard the slogan, "If it feels good do it"!

But in the great mind of God often such is not the case. His all-knowing perspective is not like ours. God is chiefly concerned with the end result, and is not satisfied until that result is achieved. Then He says it is "Good" even if the process was excruciatingly painful. Such was the work of the Cross. We don't arrive at Easter Sunday without passing through the horrific events of Good Friday. But Jesus "endured the cross, despising the shame", (He hated what He was to endure for us, but did so FOR us) "for the joy that was set before Him".

What was this joy? One pastor put it this way: "It wasn't the majesty of the Eternal Godhead in eternity, He was already part of that! It wasn't the wonders of heaven, He had already been there and brought heaven and earth into existence by His own words. So, if it wasn't the rulership of the universe, or the wonders of an eternal heaven, what was it? The answer? It was YOU and it was ME! Jesus suffered beyond our comprehension in order that He would later experience the JOY 'set before Him' of our coming back to Him in full and complete redemption!" Awesome thought! Oh how He loves us! This is a day of REMEMBRANCE; what we did TO Him and what He did FOR us! This is why we call this Friday "GOOD"!