Heavenly Father, I praise You for Your word where it says: See, my servant, will prosper; he will be highly exalted. But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man. And he will startle many nations. Kings will stand speechless in his presence. For they will see what they had not been told they will understand what they had not heard about. Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with the deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weakness he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God a punishment for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. [Isaiah 52:13-53:6]
Holy Spirit because of what was prophesied in Isaiah and was explained in the New Testament I am thankful for when Your word completes the process when it says: Since we are encompassed with such a great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Let us look to Jesus, the author, and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and your hearts give up. You have not yet resisted bloodshed while striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: “My son, do not despise the discipline from the Lord, nor grow weary when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and scourges every son whom He receives.” Endure discipline: God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? If you are without discipline, of which everyone has partaken, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers, and they corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed disciplined us for a short time according to their judgment, but he does so for our profit, that we may partake of His holiness. Now no discipline seems to be joyful at the time, but grievous. Yet afterward, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness in those who have been trained by it. [Hebrews 12:1-11]
I praise You Jesus through the Holy Spirit for the gift of salvation that only came because of Your sacrifice on the cross and for the hope of eternity as Your adopted child because of Your resurrection and ascension to heaven. I am humbled to know the price that was paid for my iniquity. In all humility and wonder I thank You, Jesus, amen.