The Word...
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16 NIV
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Hold Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:1-5 NIV
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad! Because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matt. 5:11,12 NIV
What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place where the streams come from they return again. All things are wearisome, more then I can say. the eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its full of hearing. What has been will be again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ec. 1:2-9 NIV
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God; smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth; he was lead like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep before his shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. by oppression and judgement he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death' though had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offering and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sins of many, and made intersession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53 NIV