Why The Cross Still Matters When Life Hurts

Good Friday hits differently when you’re already carrying something heavy. I’m Collette Marie, and today I’m sitting with the raw meaning of the cross: an innocent Jesus taking the punishment we deserved, choosing sacrifice so we can have access to God, forgiveness, and life everlasting. If you’ve ever wondered whether God really sees your pain, this conversation offers a steady, faith-filled answer.

We talk about the moments when hardship, trials, finances, sickness, or heartbreak make you feel abandoned. I keep coming back to this truth: God understands because He came close. Jesus knows weakness, grief, and pressure, and Scripture says He is touched by what we feel. When you can’t go any further in your own strength, you can still pray honestly, ask for grace, and take the next step without pretending you’re fine.

We also connect Good Friday to purpose and calling. Your position in life right now, even the painful parts, doesn’t cancel the plan God has for you. I reflect on Exodus and the tabernacle, where God gives people wisdom, knowledge, and understanding for the work He assigns. Your gifts aren’t random, and they aren’t meant to stay dormant. God can use what He placed in you to encourage someone else, to redeem a story, and to show love in practical ways.

If this Christian podcast episode encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a sister who needs hope, and leave a review so more listeners can find it. What are you carrying today, and what gift do you want to put back in motion?

The Cross gives us hope and I prays that today you will be reminded of ALL Christ did so you didn’t have to face the penalty of your sin. Be reminded that the Cross reminds us of the gifts we have and how we should use them for the glory of God.

Transcript

Welcome And Listener Shoutouts

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Hi, and welcome back to today's episode. I'm your host, Collette Marie. Today I want to recognize two new countries, and this is just something that I am wanting to start to do to recognize those new persons who are joining us. So we have a person from Singapore and from South Korea. I would love to hear from you what drew you to our podcast and which episode was your favorite. Please leave me voicemail on our fan mail. I'll listen to it and I will respond to you immediately after I have received that message. So welcome again. And to all my listeners, my sisters who have been joining me for the year and a half. So glad to have you listening and sharing our podcast. So today is Good Friday where I'm at, and I'm a Christian as you may know by now. And we are celebrating today the our Lord going to Calvary for our sins. We're celebrating Good Friday, the day when Jesus went to the cross to pay the ultimate price and made the ultimate sacrifice for you and I. So in our conversation, I want to look at just what it would have meant for the Lord who was innocent, who bore our sins, the penalty that we should have paid, how he bore them all, he went willingly to Calvary for you and I, so that we didn't have to face the punishment and the judgment of our sins to give us access to him and to life everlasting. And yes, I know it's not a preaching podcast, but our podcast is on position for purpose, right? And we think about it, God came and his purpose was so that he would die so that you and I would not have to face the penalty for the things that we have done, right? And it is like when I think about it, when I think back this morning about what it would have meant, as I read in Luke 23, when the Lord went before Erod and before Pontius Pilate, and they could find nothing that was wrong, and the persons where people were clamoring for Jesus to be executed, and they wanted the innocent to be to be murdered, really, and the one who was guilty to be set free. All the ways that I have sinned against you or walked away from you, I should have borne those punishment, but yet still you took all of that, you bore all of that. When I rejected you, you bore all of that in your body for me. And so we talk about position for purpose. That's why it's so important that where we are, where we are, whether it's where we are in our journeys, where we are in our lives, that we see that God has a plan and a purpose for our lives. He had a plan and a purpose for us. The day He created us, He had a plan and a purpose. Just as God had a plan and purpose to send Christ to come so that he would be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He became a man so that he could understand what we were going through. Because there's nothing that we're going through that God does not understand. He was sinless, of course, right? But he understands our feelings, he understands our hurt, he understands our heartache, he understands the situations that we are in. And so when we are in these situations of pain and hardships and trials and difficulties, and we are wondering, God, don't you hear me? God, do you understand what we are going through? Yes, he does. Yes, he hears. Yes, because his word tells us that he is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, so he understands what we are going through. Understands what we are going through, and sometimes we allow the pain of what we're going through to keep us away from him, to keep us away from not even walking in the giftings that he has given us. Because, like we're saying to ourselves, what is sense? What is the use of doing all of this? I'm going through this difficult time. I can't see God. I don't understand where he is, I don't understand why he has not yet responded to my pleas. And I feel as if I have been abandoned or forsaken by him. No, we are not. When he walked to Calvary, when he carried that cross, and when Simon of Cyrene helped him to carry that cross, he knew what we were going through. He did not, he never abandoned us, he never part way said to his father, I cannot do this anymore. I cannot do this anymore. He made the journey, he was hung on that cross, he was pierced for us, and that means that whatever we are going through, whatever situations we find ourselves in, whatever way we feel, as if we can't go any further. In our own strength, we can't. But if we depend on Him, and we said, Father, this is where I am at. Right at this moment in time. I feel as if I can't go any further. But your word tells me that your grace is sufficient for me and your strength will be made perfect in my weakness. Father, help me to continue on this journey. Help me, Lord, not to not not not to give up on you. And even if I give up, forgive me and help me to get up and to walk again. These gifts that you have given me, that I I don't even know if I have an outlet for. I don't even understand if I know what to do with them. Help me to see that you created me with a purpose and you have a plan for my life to use these gifts to benefit you and the body of Christ. That for me, when I look back at what God has done, it is an inspiration for me to say, listen, he who knew no sin became sin for me. God sent his only son for a purpose, and his purpose was to so that I can have life and have it more abundantly. He bore all my pain in his body so that I did not have to feel it, so that you did not have to feel it either. You don't have to feel it either. So where do you find yourself today? Where do you find yourself today? Whether you're listening today, Good Friday or Saturday, Sunday, Monday, where whenever you will you will hear this maybe a month or a year from now. Where do you find yourself today? What are you struggling with and feeling as if you can go no further? Feel that you have been abandoned by God. If you are a believer, it's an opportunity now to tap into God to say, Father, this is the place that I have found myself. Like you were on the cross, like you you bore all of this. You you you you you you bore the the shame of the cross. When those men were even tossing money for your for your garments, Almighty God. But you did not come down. You loved me enough to stay there. Help me to love you enough for what you have called me to, even in this difficult and this trying time. When my finances are non-existent, when my heart is broken, when my body is ailing. Give me the strength to go through and to do these things. Because you did never, you did not give up on me. You never gave up on me. Help me to not give up on you, help me to use these gifts and these hard times that I am going through for your glory and for your honor. Because all of this is a testimony to you, all of this that I'm going through is a testimony to you. My sister, can I tell you something? I was reading in the book of Exodus this morning when the Lord was giving the instructions to build the tabernacle. And when he said to Moses, I have appointed all the persons who I want to do this thing, I have given them wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to be able to do what I have called them to. And it made me say, There is no gift that I have that God has not given to me. Whether the gifts are lying dormant or whether I'm using them, it is God who has gifted me with these gifts. And as I think back on him going to Calvary, how God's gave us his one gift, his son to us, and how we have access to that gift. And that access to that gift tells me that the gifts that he has placed within me, that I have access to use these gifts, that is God who has placed them within me for me to use it, just as our God used his son as a as a point of redemption for us. God wants us to use the gifts that he has given us to help to redeem someone else, to encourage someone else to say, hang on, God is with you to encourage someone else. Yes, you are going through this hard time, this difficult time, this trying period, but God is with you. He will not leave you, he will not forsake you, to tell someone else that does not know the Lord as Christ to say, He died for you, he thought about you when he was at the cross. There is no sin too great that God cannot save you from, and then to encourage someone else to use that which God has given you, the gift in your hand, whatever he has given you, because he wants us to be able to encourage someone else, to minister to someone else, to tell someone else that there is a God who loves you, and there's a God who has gifted you with special gifts to do the things that only you can do, so that his name will be glorified in all that we do. I hope you're getting me. I hope you're understanding what I'm saying to you this morning. Because, can I tell you, it is love that had brought him to Calvary's cross. It is love that brought him to Calvary's cross for you and I. And that is the same love that he wants us to extend to others, to forgive others, to love on others, to encourage each other, to be his hands and his feet extended. I'm grateful today that he didn't stay on the cross, that we know how this story ends. We know how the story ends. He's not still on the cross, we're just remembering what he did for us. Because in three days, he's going to rise again. Well, he rose, he has already risen three days ago. He's already risen. He's already risen, and it's a reminder and an encouragement to us that because he died and because he rose again on the third day, it doesn't matter what you're faced with. The situations that seem as if they are dead and they are dormant, and no life can come to them in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Life will come back to them according to the will and the plans of Almighty God. Life will come back to them. So you may be in a place today doubting that you're in the plan and the will of Almighty God. You may be in a place today where you are facing hardship and challenges and disappointments. You may be in a place today where you may be trusting, is this God real? Can I love this God? And can I tell you wherever you find your place yourself today, whatever state you may find yourself today, whatever physical place, wherever you may find yourself today, God is right there and he can meet you if you will allow him to. Because can I tell you something? I have been there. I have been there in a place where I doubt the presence of God. I doubt that he could save me. When I look back on my life and the evil things that I did, I wondered how could a God love me? And he did. And even what now when I'm struggling to use the gifts that he has given me, I know that I can, not in my own strength, but in his strength, in the strength of Almighty God, I can. Because just as how he redeems me, he wants me to use and you to use the things that he has given us. To tell someone else that there's a God who loves them, to pull someone else up, to say there's a plan and purpose of your life, to encourage someone else to hold on, because he held on on Calvary's cross for us, because he knew what would happen in three days, and he knew what it would mean for you and I. So today remember, God made the ultimate sacrifice for you and I. And back to each other. Happy Good Friday to you, and I pray that you will find this episode today one of blessing and encouragement. And remember, he paid the ultimate sacrifice, he gave up his life so you and I don't have to, but we can use what he has given us to be a blessing to each other. Have an amazing day, and see you next time on another Position for Purpose Conversations with Clint Marie.