How deep the Father's love for us

⁴⁵Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ⁴⁷And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, "This man is calling Elijah." ⁴⁸And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." ⁵⁰And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

⁵¹And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵²The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, ⁵³and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

~Matthew 27:45-54 (emphasis added)

may He be exalted!

One night, a girl lying on her bunk bed thinking what this passage meant.
"...Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" "

the anguished cry.

It wasn't like anything she had read before. She tried imagining what it would have felt like but she just couldn't. This was Jesus, the same Jesus she had heard or read about from the Bible, not just anyone, crying out to God... "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

She couldn't get that cry, which she knew must have been from the deepest of His heart, out of her head...
Then it happened. The beautiful message of the gospel dawned upon her. The suffering that Christ had to go through was really not just the physical pain, but that He had to be separated from His beloved Father, as He bore the sins of the world on the cross.
Amazing love, how can it be
that you my King would die for me?

That beautiful moment, when by God's grace, He calls us through the gospel, He speaks to the heart. Then, the blind heart can finally start seeing, the deaf heart can start hearing.
It's a moment that I treasure deeply.

There are countless times when I have been so choked up with other things that the gospel is pushed off to the back of my head. There is a spiritual warfare and I know I cave in too easily. More often than not.
For, as Paul Washer says in one of his sermons, if we claim to be true followers of Christ but there's something else other than Jesus consuming our hearts and mind, we've walked away from the cross.

If we have been truly born again, the gospel must be the very core of our lives! And may we only grow to desire Him more and more, to know and love Him more... for indeed, how deep is the Father's love for us!
May we pray from the depth of our hearts what Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:

¹⁴For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

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

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom