I don’t know.
That’s what you say when the real response gets stuck in your throat. When you don’t know how to verbalize the heartache over your prodigal child, your recent miscarriage, or the medical condition that keeps creating more questions than answers. It’s how you respond when you’re facing a situation which will likely not be resolved by Resurrection Sunday.
A few days ago, a friend asked me a question that should have been simple to answer: “How are you feeling about your birthday falling on the same day as Easter this year?” Before I could give my own I don’t know, she pressed in. “You do know—and it’s okay to say it out loud.”
In the years since I was diagnosed with a chronic illness, birthdays and holidays have become a frequent reminder of how long my health issues have remained unresolved. As each big day comes . . . and goes. . . I can’t help but see them as definitive responses to my questions: “Will I be healed by age twenty-five?” “Will I be better by thirty?”
A few days from thirty-one, those answers are clear. Looking ahead, more questions have emerged in their place:
“How am I supposed to do this for another year?”
“What will I do if the pain gets worse?”
“Will I ever see healing on this side of heaven?”
I don’t know.
You may be heading into this weekend with the similar pain of unresolved situations. You may feel like you have more questions than answers.
Regardless of what we’re facing, what has been made known about Christ gives us more than enough reason to rejoice this Easter:
We know His character. We know His heart. We know His name.
The Wonder of His Name
In Psalm 75, the psalmist gives us a clear reason to praise the Lord: “We give thanks to you, God,” he sang, “we give thanks to you, for your name is near.”
In the Old Testament, the name of Yahweh revealed the character of God to His people. Today, Christians don’t just know God’s name, they know the name of His Son, the long-awaited Messiah, who entered into history and changed the world.
“Names matter,” says Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth in her book The Wonder of His Name. “The vastness of [Christ’s] character and His work on our behalf are revealed through His many names. The more deeply we explore the names of Jesus, the more we are able to move from simply knowing about Him to truly knowing Him.”1
What we need this Easter is to know Him, and one way we can do that is to meditate deeply on His names. Take time today to read through the following quotes taken from The Wonder of His Name. Each one begins with a prayer that models how you might want to read through the book, slowly and carefully, until your heart can’t help but rejoice in Jesus.
The Light of the World
Jesus, you are the Light of the World.
In our suffering, we have experienced so many nights where it felt like the dawn would never come, but You have—You are the long awaited Sunrise who came to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. (Luke 1:78–79)
Thank you for not leaving us alone in the dark. When we feel our souls grow weary, we can rest confidently knowing that You have overcome the world. (John 1:5, 12:46, 16:33)
Light is more powerful than darkness. In fact, it dispels darkness. Darkness has no power over light. . . . One day, [You] will return, and there will be a final great sunrise—the new Jerusalem “has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23 ESV).
. . . No more darkness. No more night. Only eternal, brilliant, glorious Light.2
Prince of Peace
Jesus, you are the Prince of Peace.
The brokenness in our lives reminds us how prevalent sin is in this world—praise God, Your grace abounds. Through Your suffering, You made a way for us, those who rebelled against You, to draw near to You. Now, when we face hard times, where else would we go but to You?
The first and greatest need in our lives is to have peace with God, and through Jesus' death on the cross, we can. This is the starting place for all peace. "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace" (Eph. 2:13–14 ESV).
Then, having received peace with God, we can have the peace of God. We can cease striving and be calm in the storms of life. We think, Oh, if this problem would go away, I could be peaceful; but peace is not the absence of problems. Peace is the presence of Christ in the midst of problems. 3
Mighty God
Jesus, you are the Mighty God.
No problem is too great for You. Nothing is outside Your control. When it feels like our problems are more than You can solve, and when our questions are beyond Your ability to answer, point us back to the power of the cross.
On the cross, Jesus conquered sin and Satan and hell and accomplished the mighty work of redemption. Then He threw off the shackles of death. That same Mighty God—the Lord Jesus—bears our burdens, supports us in our afflictions, and enables us to resist the power of temptation.
Nothing is too hard for Him—nothing! There is no one Jesus can't save. There is no heart so hard that He can't change it. He is the Mighty God!
Resurrection and the Life
Jesus, You are the Resurrection and the Life.
Because You are alive, we have hope. Your resurrection isn’t only an answer for our spiritual needs, it gives us practical support and purpose for our everyday lives.
[Christ] came to redeem not just our souls, but our bodies, as well. Every part and particle of our beings will one day share in His resurrection life.
Knowing Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life can infuse life into hopeless situations where there is no life. 4
Make His Name Known
In Psalm 75, after the psalmist wrote, “We give thanks to you, for your name is near,” he continued: “People tell about your wondrous works.”
This weekend, when people ask questions about your hard circumstances, you could choose to move the conversation along or focus only on all that you don’t know. But what if you shared what you do know? You don’t know what will happen next. You don’t have all the answers. But you do know Christ.
You know His Name. He is the Sunrise in your darkness, the Peace in your despair, the Mighty God who makes a way, the Resurrection and your very Life. This Easter Sunday, in birthdays and in brokenness, may Jesus be the reason you rejoice and the Name you find refuge in all your days.
1 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, The Wonder of His Name (Chicago: Moody Publishers; Niles: Revive Our Hearts, 2014), 3.
2 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, The Wonder of His Name (Chicago: Moody Publishers; Niles: Revive Our Hearts, 2014), 44.
3 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, The Wonder of His Name (Chicago: Moody Publishers; Niles: Revive Our Hearts, 2014), 24.
4 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, The Wonder of His Name (Chicago: Moody Publishers; Niles: Revive Our Hearts, 2014), 50.
Join the Discussion