This morning, natural man can very easily think that everything is against him. We, as children of Adam, like to sit around and engage in our favorite past-time: have a pity party about "poor pitiful me." Perhaps there are those that do have difficult times. It may be that we experience affliction and distress when we have done nothing amiss (like Job of old). However, whether we suffer for well-doing or evil-doing, we should do so gladly, for not one of us have ever suffered the way that our Lord did when He walked this earth for 33.5 years. 

Many times, we think of the suffering that our Lord endured as an abstract concept without really taking time to picture it. Consider One born without sin, and who did no sin. This One did not suffer starting at 30 years of age or even 12. He suffered from the moment He was born into this world. David here writes prophetically about it. Christ is said to be the "song of the drunkards." People down at the local saloons were making up dirty songs about Him. Why would that be? They questioned the nature of His birth. Instead of admitting to the power of God to overshadow a virgin and her bear seed of the Holy Ghost (according to prophecy), they chose rather to say that His birth was out-of-wedlock.   

When He time and time again perfectly countered the Pharisees's questioning and temptation, they had to resort to saying, "We be not born of fornication." (John 8:41) Here we have One that endured suffering all the days of His life. They reviled and persecuted Him, and those that sat at the gate (rulers) did rise up against Him. They tried Him unjustly (with many violations of the law), and they denied Him before Pilate. His own followers deserted Him. Finally, when they drove Him up Calvary's hill, they intended to put away the One that never gave in to temptation.   

His truth exposed their lies, and He had to be done away with. Then, the apex of His suffering came when His very own Father forsook Him. When He gave up the ghost, they believed that they had done what they set out to accomplish. However, in reality, HE DID what He set out to accomplish. Now, can we really say that life is against us, and we are completely in despair? He never leaves us or forsakes us, and we will never have to stand in the breach where He stood in our room and stead.

In Hope,

Bro Philip