"...but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings... If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." -1 Peter 3:13,14
Crying out tonight wanting to be genuine in my faith and praying that my sons will be too. Praying for their deliverance. Praying for one I'm hurt very much by. Crying more. Longing. Grieving.
I open up to Isaiah 53:
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied... (Isaiah 53:10-11a)
This is HIS grief I am getting to partake of to a certain extent. This isn't mine. He is not distant and uncaring, leaving me to wait this grief out. This isn't my grief, this is HIS! He already bore it to the full! I am only partaking of it to a very small extent. And my hope is great because this is HIS grief. His grief passed and He saw (sees) the labor of His soul satisfied! I too will see the labor of HIS soul and be satisfied! Because this is HIS, not mine. Oh Jesus, thank YOU!
If you're grieving tonight because someone looks down on you for your adoration of Jesus, someone you love, someone you don't want to loose... your grief is not your own. It's Jesus' grief. He bore it all and He sees the result of that pain and is satisfied. Some soul is won. Your heart is more bound to His. Pleasures that prosper in the nail-torn hands of Christ are the result of the grief He bore. The grief you and I get to partake of to a certain extent.
But even if you grieve tonight for some other reason. Maybe it's not because someone you love rejects you because of Christ. Maybe you grieve because you're tired, and the day to day, wear and tear of life has you weeping. Maybe you grieve because your child is choosing a way that is destructive. Maybe you grieve because your parent has never been there for you. Or because your spouse walked out on you. Sin destroys and leaves us all grieving. But let us remember that Jesus bore the grief we bear!
"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows..." -Isaiah 53:4
Don't believe the LIE that God is distantly looking upon you, not knowing how you feel. HE KNOWS!!! In fact He bore the very grief that crushes you now! He is not just an all knowing God who understands how you feel. What grieves you He bore! Even the very sinful choices we've made which have affected our lives in such a way as to leave us grieving, HE bore!
A mist of His tears rolls down your cheek. The entirety of your tears rolled down His. A hint of His pain grips your heart. The full crushing weight of your pain exploded HIS! If you grieve tonight you grieve a dot of what He bore, because He bore ALL of humanities grief and sorrow while we, "...we hid, as it were, our faces from Him..."
I've turned my back on the enormity of His grief and pain, but He has not turned away from me!
I am the one who doesn't understand. He understands. He knows. And when I grieve let it drive me to looking and not hiding my face from Him.
Isaiah 51:3
