How do you cope with losing a wife? And then a son when he’s just 17? Or how about falling out with your brother so that you have flee from home. That’s just some of the heartache Jacob faced. In Genesis 48 he reveals how he got through “the God who has been my shepherd all my life long” (Gen 48:15)
That is his secret, he knew what his descendant David would come to write “the Lord is my shepherd.”
Like many of you I have lost friends and family to cancer, it can be a cruel battle. A Christian man called Jeremy Marshall suffered for years with it. I remember him often saying that he couldn’t have got through cancer without Jesus. Knowing the Lord as His shepherd.
Ah, someone might say, Christianity is just a crutch. Well, if you can’t walk properly you would be very grateful of a crutch. Sooner or later we will all discover what Jacob discovered, hard things come our way. Some try and be strong in themselves, “I don’t need any help.” They may struggle on for years, claiming to be fine, but our reading from Galatians 3 tells us that there is one thing that no one can get themselves out from, the curse of the law. No matter how strong anyone is, all of us fall short of God’s perfect standards.
Our Psalm for today tells us “All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and testimonies.” (Psalm 25:10). But there’s the problem, none of us keep God’s covenant and testimonies, we all fall short.
We cannot get ourselves out of this problem because we should love God and neighbour all of the time, so we can’t just make up for the times we fail by trying a bit harder. But listen to what the apostle Paul tells us “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” (Galatians 3:13).
What an amazing truth – because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, we can be justified, our sin taken, and given Christ’s righteousness! Jesus kept God’s covenant and testimonies perfectly, he took the curse we deserve so that if we belong to Him, we can know the paths of steadfast love and faithfulness (Psalm 25:10). That’s a crutch I know I need to lean on and I am delighted to do so. And when you lean on Christ, you find Him to be that shepherd that Jacob knew all his life long. He is the one who can get you through the loss of a wife, a son, an awful diagnosis and more. You can know the Lord’s paths are steadfast love and faithfulness, even when you’re facing the shadow of death.
Lean on Him, for He can bear all your troubles and you can know His steadfast love and faithfulness through every trial.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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