RIDICULE TO RECOGNITION!!

Psalms 123:4 – We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.

Israel as a nation endured great ridicule and contempt from their neighbors and suffered much emotional distress. They were hated and despised by their enemy countries and their kings. As they were nomads, their fate was to be in contempt. Their enemies looked for reasons every day to ridicule them and laugh and scoff at them. Their patriarchs and prominent leaders were always scoffed at. The enemy of their souls used their neighbors and friends to curse them and fight with them at every available opportunity. This has caused tremendous distress in their hearts and they wondered why they were so much in ridicule day after day. Whenever they lost a war or some unfortunate thing happened to them, their enemies laughed at them. At one time, their temple was in ruins and the wall of their city was a heap of garbage. While they were in exile, their enemies had enough reasons to laugh at them. They with their leaders found only ridicule and contempt wherever they went. Their Messiah was also ridiculed by the religious and political community. Gospel has always been prey to despise and contempt. But the enemies do not realize that the people of God start with victory and moves into greater victory. Our bright destiny has already been written. We are marching to greater victory and are more than conquerors. But as humans, we are susceptible to discouragement which our enemy tries to capitalize on. He comes around to add pepper on our wounds through insults. He is looking into our minutest failures to laugh at us. But when we are emotionally distressed because of our failures and setbacks, we can go to our Lord and tell Him about it. He hears our heart cry and comes to soothe our broken and wounded hearts.

Dear reader, are you enduring ridicule and insults from people around you? When you absorb all the pain from the mockery, your Lord comes to sympathize with your failures and losses and gives you strength to move forward to greater victory. Ai might be a place of loss and defeat on a day, but when we correct our ways, there will be victory at Ai again. At the shores of Read Sea with the roaring billows, the enemy might be waiting for us to sink and disappear. When we are in the boat and distressed because of the billows, the enemy might think that we would soon drown. No one expected Joseph to come out of the pit or the dungeon to save the Egyptian people. People would only expect to see our bones at the mouth of the lions and smoked carcass in the furnace. But our God lives and He will bring us out of every impossible situation for the praise of His name. Those who ridicule and condemn us will one day see that our Lord accomplishes His purpose in us. He will lift up our heads and our banner in due season. If you are going through a time of ridicule and contempt from fellow human beings, tell it to Jesus who went through such bitter experiences for you. He will give you the grace to go through mockery and insults with praise in our mouths. You might be like a hit pad in the dressing room of the boxer and every one might be hitting you hard. If their ego will find a vent by hitting you, let them do it, but your Lord will give you the grace to take it all for His glory. Let people sling mud at you at every occasion and gossip about you, but your Lord will keep transforming you into His likeness. Down through the ages, all God’s children go through such bitter experiences, but the Lord turns it all around for His glory. He will equip you to go through it all and take all ridicule as an honor. Today if you are despised, insulted and condemned, learn to praise God for it and pray for those who insult you. Pray for grace to endure it joyfully and ask the Lord to insulate you from it’s the wreckage.

Psalms 69:12 – Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

Thought for Today