Ascension Day

What is Jesus doing right now? Do you think about that often? Every Scriptural reference (both predictions and descriptions) to Jesus' ascension up into Heaven to sit at God's right hand uses two connected ideas. First they refer to His reign over all things, and second they refer to Him interceding on our behalf.

These two naturally go together, but we do not always think of them that way. If He is not seated on the throne of authority, then interceding for us in our daily lives does not seem very effective. If He is not interceding for us, then sitting at God's right hand seems pretty useless. Only when we grasp the relationship between these two can we actually be encouraged.

Thus, you should be encouraged today. You should find greater hope in the fact that Christ is doing everything necessary for your salvation, you just need to cooperate with Him in it. He is interceding by sending His angels, by changing our circumstances, and by telling the Holy Ghost how to guide us. His intercession is constant, and it is fully effective because of the fact that He is reigning over all.

Some may doubt that He is reigning because there is so much evil in the world. Yet, even the book of Hebrews points out the same complaint in the first century. The author's answer is, "we may not be able to see people submitting to Jesus, but just because there are rebels in the world, does not change Who the world's Ruler actually is". Let us take confidence and seek to know that wonderful truth in more than mere words. Let us each remember that our Lord ascended into Heaven to bless us, and we can be certain that He will.