Psalms 69:20 AMP
Reproach and insults have broken my heart and I am so sick. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, And for comforters, but I found none.
That was Jesus at the cross. The pain He carried was breaking His heart, yet there was no one whom He could find comfort. Not even from God His Father.
Not even God Himself? Why is this so?
Throughout the entire time on earth, Jesus always referred to God affectionately as ‘Father’. However, at the cross, Jesus received our sins and God had to righteously punish and execute His holy judgment on Jesus. That was the only time when Jesus addressed His own Father as ‘God’ while God turned His back away from His one and only Son. Jesus experienced hell at the cross:
…Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,… ‘My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?’
(Matthew 27:46)
There, Jesus lost His Sonship, so that today we can say, ‘My Father, My Father, why have you so loved me?’.
We may feel alone with our struggles which no one understands. We may have been insulted and ridiculed in the past. We may even feel distant from God, thinking that He is far away.
The Father’s words are affirming: ‘…I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus was forsaken in exchange for the surety that our loving Father will never ever forsake us today! He is right here with you!
I say Amen to that, but I’m still feeling hurt and pained from things that have bothered me. I never seemed to be fully healed! I wanna give up!
Beloved one, it was never God’s will for us to be hurt or in pain. If it matters to you, it matters to Him. If it hurts you, it hurts Him more.
Because of reproach (back to the verse at the top), Jesus’s heart was literally broken. Scientific research has shown that Jesus most likely died of pericardial effusion and pulmonary edema whereby the heart was ruptured, causing fluids to build up in that area. This is confirmed in the bible when a soldier pierced Jesus’s side and ‘blood and water came out’ (John 19:34).
Reproach is cherpah in the Hebrew, which means scorn, taunting, disgrace, rebuke, shame.
Imagine your reproach and pain absorbed into Jesus’s heart and literally broke it. His rejection was your rejection. His shame was your shame. The betrayal you experienced was on Him. He bore them all, heart-broken, to give you a robust and healthy heart.
Now, whenever hurtful words are hurled at you, or familiar feelings of shame come at you, guard your heart – see again that these are all absorbed in Jesus’s heart at the cross for you. See His heart broken in place of yours.
The bible says, ‘The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such that had a contrite spirit’. (Psalms 34:18)
Thoughts that isolate you and cause you to feel alone in this journey are lies that came from the pit of hell. Our Abba is close to you and your heart 🙂
For anyone who has been shamed and ridiculed in our lives, the word has this amazing promise:
Instead of your shame you shall have double honour… (Isaiah 61:7 NKJV).
Note this truth: God’s restoration is always greater than before – in quantity, in quality, or both. That’s His love and restoration for you. His sacrifice is an overpayment. Lean on His grace for you – you cannot be shortchanged 🙂
Fear not, beloved, for Abba loves His children. Restoration and healing is His portion for our lives ❤️
Amen!