"He was despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care." (Isiah 53:3 NLT)
I don't mean to get on a kick of a sorrowful message but I'm just going to speak from my heart and pray that Jesus helps me white this. It's good to see the sorrow in Jesus. To try and understand what He really went through for us and how much that caused Him pain. See, if we miss that or if we kind of make light of it, then we will not truly fall in love with our Savior Jesus Christ! Because it is in the cross that we see He loves us so much and we need that to love Him back and hold a high reverence for Him.
Sometimes when I really stop and think about it, it grieves my heart to know that it took Jesus to love me first before I could love Him. All of the glory in the world belongs to Him for the amount of suffering He went through for us at Calvary. For me and for you! (Romans 5:10)
Even Peter who was so sure of himself that he would even die for Jesus if it came down to it, turned his face away from Jesus in the most difficult time of His life! Jesus at that moment was carrying the wieght of the burden of Peter's sin FOR Peter even as Peter is spitting directly into the face of his closest friend-Jesus!
We truly don't even realize how much we grieve have grieved Jesus. I know I don't understand it fully. But He is revealing a little at a time. I want to be like Him. I NEED to be like Him. God has given me the responsabilty of being a father to 6 children and most of them being teens. Five of them come from my wife's previous relationships coming from four different other fathers. So, needless to say with my wife's background mixed with my background mixed with a lot of baggage from other relationships is a bit of a challenge!
Now, I hope you can see what I mean when I say I NEED to be like Him. I need to learn how to bear my children to God and lead my family to the Lord. I am called as a father to intercede for my family. They need a father that will look out for them. To be a "Man of Sorrows" for them. Isn't that what we as fathers supposed to do? Be Jesus to our families? Now, this is the hard part... Just like Jesus was denied and ridiculed and spat on and turned away from, we will too. But, we need to love them anyway! And as we do, I'm believing, we will gain their love and respect later because they will see and start to understand what we go through for them. In the mean time we need to lift them up to Jesus and pray mercy for them.
And what exactly is the mercy we need to show and pray for?
“Mercy is God's supply system for every need everywhere. Mercy is that kindness, compassion and tenderness, which is a passion to suffer with, or participate in, another ills or evils in order to relieve, heal and restore. It accepts another freely and gladly AS he is and supplies the needed good of life to build up and to bring to peace and keep in peace. It is to take another into one's heart JUST AS HE IS and cherish him there. Mercy takes another's sins and evils and faults as its own, and frees the other by bearing them to God. This is the Glow-of-love."
And this is the Mercy prayer model...
- Lord, I thank you for _____. I thank You for saving him/her. Thank You for what You have done and are doing in his/her life.
- Make _____ to know Jesus. Help him/her to increase in the knowledge of God. Destroy speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and help him/her to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
- Make _____ poor in spirit. Bring him/her down, Lord, but do it gently. Help him/her to see his/her neediness. Help _____ to see him\herself in light of You. Put _____ in his\her rightful place, Lord.
- Fill _____ with Your Holy Spirit. Immerse him/her in Your Spirit, Lord. Come to him/her in power and might. Baptize him/her in fire, Lord.
- Life _____. Life him/her according to Thy lovingkindness. Pour out Your life-giving mercies into his/her soul.
- Bless _____. Lord, bless him/her in everything he/she touches. Bless him/her spiritually, physically and financially. Bless his/her loved ones. Do for him/her, Lord, instead of me.
- Mercy _____. Flood him/her with need-filling mercies. Pour them out in super abundance. Find and meet every need in his/her life as you see it, Lord.
Intercede for your family by praying this prayer for them!
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