Every child of God has a testimony. This testimony reflects our life before coming into a relationship with God, acknowledges what He did for us on the cross, then a life changed after accepting His payment. Though the stories vary as our life experiences vary, some dramatic, some appear less dramatic, but that is only how the world sees it. To God, we are all sinners, some have taken His free offer of salvation, most have chosen not to. At church, when meeting new people, we should always be prepared to tell our testimony (1 Peter 3:15, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;"), which encourages others, and we should ask how they came to faith which will encourage us. No one is born into the faith, even if raised in the church, there must be that moment when we realize that we do not deserve the grace and mercy that has been extended to us, by Him.

We read in Isaiah 42:3, "A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth." We were all at one time bruised reeds and smoking flax. Reeds are top heavy, and become bent, brittle, and easily crushed. Like this bruised reed, we at one point were crushed by the weight of the world and the burden of our own sin. The smoking flax is the last piece of wick in an oil lamp, which is deemed worthless. So it is pinched and thrown out. Just like the worthlessness of the smoking flax, many of us at one time deemed our lives worthless, purposeless, without passion or purpose. The world will gladly tell you just how broken and worthless you are. But, not Jesus. These are exactly who He came for. He did not come to break us or discard us, He came to heal us, save us, restore us. He came to pour in the fresh oil of the Holy Spirit and ignite us. Jesus came for us, the needy sinners that we are. Isaiah contains four Suffering Servant passages related to Jesus' first coming: 42:1-9, 49:1-13, 50:4-11, and 52:13-53:12. Reading prophecy can be difficult. Within the same chapter His servant can refer to Jesus at His first coming, Jesus at His second coming, or neither, but represent the nation of Israel. Even the word save and redeem often has two meanings depending on it's context: either eternal salvation as often the case in the New Testament, or earthly restoring as often stated in the Old Testament. If these seems difficult, realize that the prophets simply spoke forth the Word of God. They hadn't pieced it all together. We read in 1 Peter 1:10-12, "Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,...To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-things which angels desire to look into." Many wish the prophets spoke more directly, but many in Jesus' day said the same thing when He chose to teach in parables. To which Jesus answered in Matthew 13:10-14, "And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak in parables?"...Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."

Prophecy can be difficult to understand and navigate through, but isn't He worth it? These suffering servant passages were written 700 years before Jesus fulfilled them. Prophecy is God's fingerprint in the Bible, accurately foretelling of events with razor sharp accuracy well in advance of their occurring. Notice the hope for us in these amazing portions of Scripture. While the world steps on and eliminates the worthless objects depicted here, which represent us, Jesus offers to lift us up and to breathe fresh life into us. Notice His offer of hope extended to the Gentiles in 42:1,6. The Gentiles, which most of us were, were considered worthless, being deemed by the Jewish people in those times as worth nothing more than to serve as the fuel for hell. But here many of us are, beautiful in His eyes and redeemed. We are pictured as prisoners in 42:7, and we were, in bondage to sin and death. Before Jesus, we were all hurting and struggling, most just didn't want to admit it. This is exactly who Jesus came for, as depicted in the Parable of the Lost Sheep in Luke 15:4-7, where Jesus goes after that lost one , finds it, saves it, and rejoices when he finds it. As we go through these deep and beautiful portions of prophecy, may we take the time to read them, meditate on them, and apply them.