Day 18: Forsaken for Us

Written by Nate Fortin

Matthew 27:45-46

“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And 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?’”

By the time we reach this moment in Matthew’s Gospel, everything has gone wrong, at least from a human perspective. Jesus has been betrayed, falsely accused, and condemned. He hangs on a cross between two criminals, counted among the guilty. One mocks Him. The other admits his guilt and asks to be remembered. Their responses feel familiar because they reflect the same choice every one of us faces.

At midday, when the sun should be brightest, darkness covers the land for three hours. Creation bears witness that something of eternal significance is unfolding.

Then Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He is quoting Psalm 22. This is not a cry of despair without meaning. It is deliberate. The psalm describes crucifixion centuries before it happened. By speaking these words, Jesus points to the bigger story. This is not an accident. This is the plan. He is the promised Messiah, fulfilling Scripture and carrying out God’s rescue mission for us.

On the cross, Jesus bears the full weight of our sin. In a mystery we cannot fully explain, the Son experiences the loss of the Father’s comforting presence as He stands in our place under judgment. The Holy One steps into the darkness we deserve so that we can stand in the light of God’s presence.

I have walked through seasons that felt like darkness, times of unanswered questions, including the loss of two infant children. In those moments, I ran up against the limits of my understanding. Like Job, I was forced to wrestle with the reality that God’s ways are bigger than mine. But the cross anchors my trust. It reminds me that God is not distant from suffering. In Christ, He entered into it fully. He knows the pain, the grief, even the feeling of abandonment.

Because Jesus was forsaken for us, we are never abandoned.

His obedience restored our relationship with God. Even in His suffering, Jesus trusted the Father, ultimately saying, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Because He trusted the Father in the darkest moment imaginable, we can trust Him in ours.

The cross reveals a God who is both sovereign and near, holy and full of grace. That grace gives a peace that does not depend on having every answer. It rests in this truth. We are fully known, fully loved, and held by a Savior who was forsaken so we never will be.

Prayer Prompts:

• Thank Jesus for taking your place on the cross and bringing you into God’s presence so you can live with the assurance that He is always near.

• Ask God to strengthen your trust when you face unanswered questions, helping you rest in His sovereignty and grace.

Day 17: Victory Through Suffering

Written by Amanda Serrano

isaiah 53:10-12

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

When we think of victory, we usually picture strength, breakthrough, and visible triumph. We don’t picture suffering. Yet Isaiah 53 gives us a completely different image of what victory looks like in the Kingdom of God. 

I learned this in a very real way when my five-year-old experienced a traumatic injury. It was painful and frightening, but instead of trying to control what was happening, which I couldn’t, I had to trust God completely. In that surrender, I discovered a peace I hadn’t known before.

Isaiah 53:10–12 describes Jesus, the Suffering Servant, whose pain was not random but purposeful: “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief… out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.” Jesus’ suffering brought life, redemption, and victory. What looks like loss or grief can become the path to God’s purposes. His pain was part of a greater plan, and ours can be, too.

Through my child’s injury, I realized that suffering teaches us to trust in ways comfort never could. I couldn’t fix the situation, but I could place it in God’s hands. I could pray, “Lord, I trust You,” and mean it with my whole heart. Proverbs 3:5–6 became alive for me in that season: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Letting go of control didn’t remove the pain, but it allowed God to shape it into something redemptive, deepening my faith and teaching me what true trust looks like.

Isaiah reminds us that victory through suffering is real. Sometimes it comes through difficulty, fear, or uncertainty, but God is always at work, redeeming our broken moments. The cross shows us that suffering does not have the final word. Trusting God transforms trials into opportunities to experience His peace, His presence, and His power in ways we could never create on our own.

Prayer Prompts:

• Thank God for His faithfulness and for the victory He brings through suffering, even when we don’t fully understand it.

• Ask God to help you trust Him in your current struggles, letting go of control and allowing Him to teach and shape your heart through them.

Day 16: It Is Finished

Written by Liam Henderson

Luke 23:44-49

44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.

The last words that Jesus said before he died on the cross were “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Jesus gave up his spirit, his soul, and his life on his own accord to God in his last breath, showing his loyalty to God, that he trusts God with his spirit, his soul, and his life. For me personally, it is not always easy to stay loyal to God with constant distractions. As a three-sport student-athlete I often get carried away with all of my sports, keeping up with my grades, and general busyness in my life that I sometimes forget the thing that matters the most, and that is being loyal to God. Now, my sports and grades do matter, but without God none of it matters. 

Another way that loyalty was shown in this passage was when Jesus’s followers followed him from Galilee all the way to where he died. They continued to follow him even when nobody else believed Jesus. They followed him even when he was wrongly imprisoned and crucified. They continued to believe that he was the one sent by God to wash away our sins. It takes a lot of courage to have faith in someone and have faith when even the government is against them. 

I sometimes have a hard time following God in my life because there are so many temptations that try to pull me away from staying loyal to God. One of my three sports is wrestling, and during this past season I found it very hard to keep going because of all of the training and mental toughness that it took to keep wrestling. Every night I would pray to God and ask him “why is it so hard right now?” I always felt him telling me that he was putting me where he wanted me, and that I needed to wait. 

So I did.  

I trusted him even when I felt like quitting, but I kept at it because I knew that God was teaching me something through the difficulty, discipline, and painful endurance. This period of time taught me humility and the ability to trust and be loyal to God more because he was the one that got me through it and helped me thrive.

I’m learning that being loyal to God isn’t always easy, but it will pay off in the long run, whether it takes days, months, or even years. 

Prayer Prompts:

• Ask God what it looks like to be loyal to him today in your own life.

• Ask God for forgiveness for when you have strayed away from him in the past.