But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God.” Isaiah 49:4
August 18, 2022
It might seem unimaginable that the Servant, the Messiah, could have struggled with a sense of failure. In this glimpse into the soul of Israel’s coming Messiah, we see Him working through a time of “downness.” Through the lens of prophecy we know that the Servant of God would experience struggle with apparent failure. In His earthly ministry the crowds had thinned out. Jesus said, “you do not want to go away also, do you?” (Jn. 6:67). In the Garden of Gethsemane He said, “My soul is deeply grieved” (Matt. 26:38). The Servant-Messiah was despised and rejected by men. He was tested. Yet He believed. There was never a time when He was not loving His Father with all His heart. When He died, what had He accomplished? “To all appearances, nothing” (J. Oswalt). However, in the Servant’s struggle with discouragement He did not sin (Heb. 4:15). He trusted the Father (“yet surely”). In our own sufferings with Jesus, it is the Lord who determines whether I am a failure or not. Satisfaction must come from doing the will of God, not from apparent results. Are you facing discouragement? There must be an immediate turn in our thinking to the settling truths about God. Relate your circumstances to His perfections. Don’t stand away from God. Stand with Him (“My God,” Jesus said). Don’t allow the rip tide of emotional suffering to pull you under into unbelief. Lay hold of Spirit generated courage and triumph through weakness. Look beyond having shared in Christ’s suffering to the reward of His resurrection. H
A time to meditate: “Revisit the truth that the work to which God has called can never be a failure.” Alec Motyer