I Have Taken The Cup

¹“Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:” (Isaiah 51:22). Occasionally, if we are very lucky, we get the smallest glimpse of the true impact of our actions and choices. If our choices have been bad, this is not a pleasant experience. To see really and truly the harmful consequences of our bad decisions, without the illusions of self justifications or mitigating circumstances, is a truly harrowing and agonizing experience. Such pure and unvarnished truth is a bitter cup to drink from, and if we try to drink it all the way to the dregs of fury, then it may very well destroy us. But thankfully, there is a way out. We will never be able to set the world right from the things that we did. If those we have harmed ever experience healing or find it in themselves to forgive us, it will not be because of anything we ourselves have the power to do, no matter how often or how fervently we attempt to make amends. Jesus Christ, however, does have the power to heal and to repair all of the damage that we have caused. More than that, if we will allow Him to do so through our sincere efforts of repentance, Jesus can take from out of our hands the cup of trembling. When we experience godly sorrow and start to feel the full effects of what we have done, we sometimes misinterpret this justifiable pain that we are experiencing as evidence that God wants us to feel this way. He does not. Our Heavenly Father sacrificed His Only Begotten Son so that none of us would ever have to drink again from the bitter cup. Jesus Christ bled from every pore and suffered more than we will ever be able to comprehend just so that He could take this cup away from us. Let us honor His sacrifice. The worst way that we could possibly show our gratitude for Christ's sacrifice is to snatch back that cup from Him and insist on drinking it ourselves. We don't need to suffer alongside Jesus. He claimed ownership of our cup. He doesn't want us to try and drink it again. The best thing we could possibly do is to just keep on repenting as often and as sincerely as we can, and whenever that cup ends up back in our possession, let us look for Christ's outstretched hand and have the humility and the gratitude to let Him take it out of our hands.