**And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. ** 2 Corinthians 1:7
When we talk of the sufferings of Christ, our minds quickly go to the torturous cross. The beatings, the thorny crown, the spitting in his face, the nails, the vinegar….
But maybe before the cross He suffered.
When one of His dearest friends, Lazarus, died.
When He didn’t have his own home or a family that loved Him and honored and respected Him.
When He had to walk everywhere without the comfort of a Lexus or a convertible.
When He was tired and thirsty from all that walking and didn’t have any of His own money to buy himself and his friends something to eat.
When He didn’t have a wardrobe to choose from every day.
Or…When they rejected His Truth, His teaching of the Kingdom. When they mocked Him or rejected or tried to kill him again and again for trying to help them.
When He knew that He was the Son of God, but couldn’t get people to understand all that that meant.
When He taught the Truth, over and over again, but people still walked away lost and confused.
When He loved so greatly, and they treated Him so badly.
None of us have suffered on a cruel Cross like Jesus willingly did for us. But all of us have suffered in some of these other ways.
Rejection. Unrequited love. Mocked. Misunderstood. Hungry. Thirsty. Not enough money to pay the bills.
How did Jesus keep going on all the tough days?
The Word of God. He wasn’t just the Word Incarnate-an automatic magic wand power kind of thing–He knew the Scriptures, studied them, argued them with the know-it-alls.
He knew the promises contained in them. He was one of them. The promised Messiah.
He knew what the Father wanted. He lived for what the Father wanted. His day to day was led by what He knew from His Word. He knew what to say and how to act and to react according to the guidance of His Word.
And prayer. Constant communication with the Father. He took time to pray and ask for guidance in everything. Every day. He exercised His spiritual muscles long before He was nailed to the cross. All the little trials, the frustrating crowds, the daily inconveniences were put before His Father.
When the day came to be delivered to his death, He was ready. He had done everything He needed to do to prepare Himself. He was used to surrendering to the Father’s will.
I am not saying it was easy. But it was much easier than having lived His whole life doing as He pleased and then suddenly having to do something hard.
We can be like Him. But we need to start today.