Zechariah 13:1

“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”

In Zechariah 12:10 it says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”  From this verse to this first verse in chapter 13, it is a description of the people of Jerusalem mourning over the death of Jesus. This prophecy depicts this fountain of cleaning opening up for the people because they have mourned and received grace from the Father in heaven who brought redemption to them. Reading this, I see this as being broken and mourning over the death of our Savior, but also receiving the cleansing from Him so that we may walk in grace and show others what He came and died for. 

I am coming to realize in my own life that I don’t truly understand the full Capacity and weight of the cross and what Jesus did for me. When I read this passage in Zechariah for a second time, I felt the Lord press on my heart and say,”This, dear child, is how I want you to view the weight of the cross.” That hit me really hard. When I think of the cross, I don’t normally  weep and mourn as if I just lost my first child, I don’t see it as God does, I make it selfish. The fountain that He opened is for those who see the sorrow and pain with the cross and see that the only way to be cleansed of this wrong is to walk as Jesus did, with the weight of the cross on our shoulders. The Lord has shown me that in order to walk with the weight of the cross, I have to see the cross as He did, a place of death, but also one of redemption and salvation for all who come to Him. I have to take the weight of what I did by putting Him on that cross and receive the redemption and live a life changed by His grace. The fountain is flowing with life eternal because the firstborn Son of God came down and died a gruesome death for my sake so that I could live in communion with Him. That is the ultimate display of love. 

As the Lord shows me my lack of understanding of the weight of the cross, He continues to reveal to me in His word the weight and severity of the cross. He is challenging me to love and go so hard, Him being the only thing that I possess in my heart. The only way that he will be able to fully show me the weight of the cross is by leaving all of myself behind, stepping up into the gifts, and roles that He has for me, growing up, and making Him the only thing on the throne of my heart. This is a process He wants to take me through in this time and I know it isn’t going to be easy and at ties, it will be painful, but it is a reasonable act of worship to the Father who sent His only Son to die for me on a cross when He had done nothing to deserve it, all He did was love us so much that He died for us. As I continue to dive into His word and learn more of who He is to me, He continues to show me His love and faithfulness to stick to it even when I’ve learned the same lesson so many times before. He never grows tired or weary of going and getting the sheep who has gone astray.

My application for this is to have an accountability partner asking me if I am diligently reading the Word and praying to the Lord for that decrease of self.