Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home – John 19:27

We are commanded to “look to Jesus” on the cross in order to know how to handle suffering (Hebrews 12:2).——

When we face overwhelming grief, unrelenting discouragement, or pounding pain, it is often hard to know what to do. We tend to want to roll up in a ball and hope that the storm will pass or that some easy solution will present itself.

However, the right response, even in times of great suffering, is to make practical preparations in the midst of your sorrow. You must still get out of bed, or go to work, or do the laundry, or pay the bills, or play with the children, or write up your will — no matter how low you may feel, ignoring your responsibilities will not help any problem go away.

Here was Jesus, in the darkest moment of human history, bearing the brunt of man’s and God’s wrath. No one has ever been in as low a state as Jesus was at this time. And, yet, he is making simple, mundane preparations for after his death. He is making sure that his mother will be cared for.

Elizabeth Elliot calls this fundamental need to face reality the “do the next thing” principle. When you don’t know what to do next, she says, do the next thing. This excellent and practical advice comes from an old, sacred poem:

Do it immediately, do it with prayer;
Do it reliantly, casting all care;
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand
Who placed it before thee with earnest command.
Stayed on Omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,
Leave all results, do the next thing.     —–From “A Good Thing”.

“If ye love Me, keep my commandments.”John 14:15

God is our Father and we are His children. We are to obey Him absolutely and without question. Yet it is no blind obedience. We know that He loves us with a deep, tender, unchanging love. We know that He is wiser than we, infinitely wiser, and can never err. We know that when He denies a request—that the granting of it would be unkindness. We know that when He leads us in another path than the one we had marked out—that His is the right way. We know that when He chastens or corrects—that there is love in His chastisement or correction. We know that in all His government and discipline—that He is seeking only our highest good. Our whole duty therefore as God’s children, is to yield ourselves to His will.(By J. R. Miller, 1882) “—If a man me, he will keep my words—John 14:23)

“God’s grace means that I can rest assured that I’ll have everything I need to be what he wants me to be and to do what he wants me to do in the situation in which he’s placed me.

I’m no longer restricted to the limits of my own strength and wisdom. By his grace, I’ve a new identity and a new potential. I’m a child of God; the risen Christ now lives inside of me. I need no longer fear people or circumstances; I don’t have to feel weak in the face of suffering or temptation, because I no longer rest in the resources of my own ability. I’m in Christ and he’s in me.

This new identity gives me new potential as I face the realities of life in this bent and broken world. God’s grace gives me reason to ‘take heart.’”–Paul David Tripp