158 A Man of Sorrows and Acquainted with Grief A Guided Christian Meditation on Isaiah 53:1-3

158 A Man of Sorrows, and Acquainted with Grief A Guided Christian Meditation on Isaiah 53:1-3 I’m Chaplain Jared and I work as a hospice chaplain and an ICU chaplain, my purpose in making this podcast is to help you find more peace in your life and to be more open for your heart to be changed by the Spirit of God.   By using centuries old form of Christian Meditation named Lectio Divina: Outline: Relaxation, Reading, Meditation, Prayer, Contemplation and Visualization. Get into a place where you can sit comfortably and uninterrupted for about 20 minutes.You should hopefully not be driving or anything tensing or unrelaxing.   If you feel comfortable to do so, I invite you to close your eyes.  Guided Relaxation / Guided Meditation: Breathe and direct your thoughts to contacting God. Let your stomach be a balloon inflate, deflate. Bible verses for Meditation: KJV 53 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. NRSV 53 Who has believed what we have heard?         And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,         and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,         nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by others;         a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces         he was despised, and we held him of no account. Meditation on Scripture:  In preparing for this week’s message I am absolutely certain that this is the message I need to cover today. Because this is what you need. God has been very clear about this one.   I think you understand.    Elisabeth Kübler-Ross “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.” Each one of us sees ourselves as somewhat of an expert on our own suffering. Not how to get out of it, or how to fully understand it, or even exactly what we feel at any given time. Yet somehow we feel we understand how bad our suffering is. The truth is all we possibly understand is one perspective at one given time. That is all we can ever have. This is even more clear as we look at the whole world. Of the other 7 billion people on earth at this moment we understand what they are going through even less. We don’t understand our own feelings most of the time, much less the feelings of others. We don’t understand why we perceive things so bad. The thing that I am reflecting on today is how we could possibly be useful to each other during suffering.  If we don’t fully understand our own emotions, how could we possibly be helpful to others? The reason is because suffering does conform to reason. Our perception of suffering does not have anything to do with objective facts. What we really want is for life to make sense. We want unending goodness for ourselves and those we care about, our whole lives long. Yet God has a different plan. It’s not like He is being hypocritical about it either. When Jesus came he did not come to live as a detached royal in a large palace. He came to life as one of the people and to suffer and die. He was betrayed, he was hated, he was tortured, and the only thing He ever did to deserve it was to do miracles and to speak truth to those who needed repentance. Even his Apostles did not understand the purpose of His suffering until it was hindsight.   Our life contains suffering, not because a life without suffering could not have been manufactured by God, but because this is the plan he laid out. Just as Jesus’ disciples, most of the time we won’t understand the purpose of our suffering until it is over and then some. I promise you this. No hardship will be wasted if it draws us nearer to God and helps us develop.    Meditation of Prayer:   Pray as directed by the Spirit. Dedicate these moments to the patient waiting, when you feel ready ask God for understanding you desire from Him. Meditation of God and His Glory / Hesychasm: I invite you to sit in silence feeling being patient for your own faults and trials.  Summarize what insights you have gained during this meditation and meditate and visualize positive change in your life: This is a listener funded podcast at patreon.com/christianmeditationpodcast Updates: Final Question: Do you need to understand your hardship? Final Thought:  FIND ME ON: Website - ChristianMeditationPodcast.com Android App Store: Recenter with Christ Voicemail - (602) 888-3795 Email: [email protected] Apple Podcasts - Christian Meditation Podcast Facebook.com/ChristianMeditationPodcast Youtube.com/ChristianMeditaitonPodcast Twitter - @ChristianMedPod