We are told in the book of Isaiah that Jesus was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief and suffering. We are told in the book of Hebrews that for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. We are told in Galatians that He became the curse for us, because cursed in everyone that hangs on a tree.
In these days, the hearts of children are piercing–even cursing–the hearts of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, family and friends.
In these days, words such as joy are being used in vacuous, twisted and deeply wrong ways. There is no true joy set before those who go against the will and design of their Creator, and those that are ensnared in this curse are leaving a wave of devastation and destruction in their path. First, the destruction is to themselves, next, the destruction ripples out from this very deep pool of sorrow.
I know the depth of this pool of sorrow from the ways my own life and family has suffered, and also I am part of a private network of parents that have also had this evil pierce all that is good, right and holy in the world of their child and their family.
Prayer: Thank you, King Jesus, that these particular sufferings were encompassed in Your work on the cross and that You bear our burdens continually, even when we cannot see the way forward nor fully experience Your presence in such darkness.
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“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.”
(Isaiah 53:3-9)
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“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
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“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13)
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