JESUS – A MAN OF SORROWS ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF

 

In the light of the tragedies happening around our country and world, I felt compelled to share some words of comfort to all of us who feel overwhelmed with sadness, perplexities, and grief. I wrote on one of my sisters, Karen’s Facebook page, a prayer for the families and community of Sutherland, Texas and thought about the tragic killing in New York City just a week ago. Because of my brain disorder, I don’t watch the news, so Facebook is the venue our Father uses to keep me informed on what’s happening around the world. It also gives me an open door into the lives of my brothers and sisters in order to fellowship with and pray with them. Here is my prayer:

 

Papa, grace, and comfort! We don’t understand how such evil can invade a place where we go to worship and praise you. We are so distraught and perplexed. Papa, we feel so secure when we gather together in your name. I don’t understand the whys or the how comes, but this one thing I DO KNOW… YOU ARE WITHIN US AND WITH US NO MATTER WHAT!!! IN THIS WORLD WE WILL HAVE TRIBULATIONS… BUT WE ARE NEVER ALONE… THANK YOU, JESUS! THANK YOU, PAPA.

 

When I woke up this morning, this scripture came to my heart:

 

Isaiah 53: 3-4 (Amplified)

He (Jesus) was despised and rejected by men
A Man of Sorrows and Pain and Acquainted with Grief
And like One from whom men hide their faces
He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or esteem Him.

But [in fact] He has borne our griefs,
And He has carried our sorrows and pains;
Yet we [ignorantly] assumed that He was stricken,
Struck down by God and degraded and humiliated [by Him].

 

 

 

Before time began, our Lord saw through the corridors of time, how the disobedience of Adam would so tragically impact the human race. Adam gave his authority to rule the earth to Satan when he chose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, forbidden by His Father. Our Lord chose to come into our darkness and chaos to experience the overwhelming sense of helplessness we feel as human beings to restore mankind back to His rightful authority and loving relationship with our Father. While our Lord Jesus was in this world, as a man, He experienced pain, anguish, affliction, death of a friend, loss, the anxieties and fears of His closest friends, oppression of people in society, and calamity everywhere. He encountered sickness and disease, wars, killings, the suicide of His disciple, Judas, murders, persecution, abuse, rejection, and destruction during His lifetime. And, guess what? He didn’t stop them. Could He have? Yes, probably. He was surrounded by a host of angels, but He didn’t end the chaos around Him, though He was Lord of Heaven. He chose the disguise of a servant and experienced our humanity with us and for us. Christ IN US, as members of His Body, were not called to change our environments either, but the hearts of mankind. Our mission is to restore and to reconcile mankind back into the glorious liberty In Christ even in the face of fear, rejection, destruction, and the myriad of evils surrounding us. HE IS OUR ONLY SAFE AND SECURE PLACE!

 

Jesus keeps reminding us of His words to us in John 16:33 I shared in a blog a few weeks ago:

 

“I have told you Precious Ones, Please don’t forget my words. Keep them close to your heart and in your mind. In this world, when mankind rejects and despises Me, My counsel and wisdom, YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE, BUT ONLY IN ME WILL YOU FIND PEACE.  Remember in this fallen, sin-filled, dark, and chaotic world, YOU WILL have:

 

• Distresses
• Grief, loss, anguish in your soul
• Sorrows
• Calamities from storms, wars, and destruction
• Killings, murders because of hatred
• Disunity, division, bigotry, terrorism
• Afflictions in your body and in your mind, disease, sufferings
• Persecutions
• Death, loss
• Troubles of all kinds that will weigh on your soul, many you have no control over
• Problems with your children, marriage, family issues, job issues, money issues, etc.

 

BUT… Be of good courage because I have conquered the pain of it for you so you won’t have to bear it. I WILL BEAR IT FOR YOU! I have prevailed over all the darkness that will hold you captive. I overcame them all for you so that I WILL BE THAT SAFE PLACE WITHIN YOU:

 

• To lay your weary head upon
• To share all your pains and struggles with
• To find peace in the midst of the chaos all around you and within you
• To ease your troubled mind
• To experience comfort to your broken heart
• To be your wisdom and light through the darkness
• To enjoy REST for your anxious and fearful soul

 

Because our Lord lives within us, He is touched by every feeling we feel and every thought we think. He IS OUR PEACE and the RESTING PLACE for our souls, turn to Him.

 

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming into my chaotic world within and around me. Within my soul and spirit, you experience with me everything I feel overwhelmed by. But I am reminded of a beautiful song from years ago that says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, then the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of Your glory and grace.”  I will look at you, my Lord! AMEN

 

*** Please see Heaven Serenades page a song called “He Lives Within You”