He was despised and rejected by others, and a man of sorrows, intimately familiar with suffering

Have you ever had someone tell you that they knew what you were going through, but you knew they had none of the disadvantages you had and all the advantages you did not have? And have you ever known those who by their actions essentially say do as I say, not as I do? And do you know those who are more than willing to hand out advice, but don’t have a clue? Our God is not like that in any of these ways!

At this Christmas time, we celebrate the lowly birth of one who suffered and bled and died one of the most horrendous deaths known to man! So on the first count, He is very far from being a God who is up there looking down on us isolated from our trials and temptations. But rather, He is completely able to “sympathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15a). In other words He really does know what we are going through!

Secondly, far from failing to obey the very things He commands us to do, He “was in all points tried and tempted and tested as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15b). And just as importantly, He never asks us to go through something that He Himself has not gone through, only worse!

Thirdly, since it is true that “in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), then when we ask for it the wisdom that we receive “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).

Father, it is true what You said to Abraham, that You Yourself are our exceedingly great reward (Genesis 15:1). But it is also true that I have had little more than a glimpse of this, and I want to know You and Your wisdom more and more. Keep me seeking, knocking and asking in Jesus Name Amen