COMFORT FROM GOD

Anita Clark – Pastor, Carbondale, Kansas

“Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

These words of Jesus Christ show us that we must come to Him and lay our heavy burden down.  Each of us are going through trials, often very deep and troubling.  In order to have peace in our hearts and minds, we must lay our burden down at the feet of our Mighty Conqueror, Jesus our Redeemer. We cannot bear our burdens and expect to live in victory. We must give them to Jesus, Who has promised in these verses which He spoke when He was here on earth, “I will give you rest.” As the old song says, “Peace, peace wonderful peace coming down from the Father above.”

Psalms 103:13 says, “Like a father piteth his children, so the Lord piteth them that fear Him.” The word “piteth” in the Hebrew means, “to have compassion and mercy.”  In Psalm 23:4, “The Shepherd Psalm,” says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want...Thy rod and staff, they comfort me.” The word “comfort” here in this text in the Hebrew means “to console, pity, be sorry.”  The word “rod” the Shepherd uses means “defense.”  The “staff” is a crook or walking stick.  Our Shepherd Lord Jesus uses both of these in helping and often rescuing us. He said to rest.  Can you imagine resting in the Shepherd’s arms, so safe and secure?

Psalms 119:50 says, “This is my comfort in affliction for Thy Word hath quickened me.”  How many times when we are in trail, when we go to the word and begin to read it, that we are comforted.  The word “affliction” used here actually means, “depression, misery or trouble.” The word “quickened” means “to revive, repair, or restore.”  We can often experience this blessed comfort from God by going to His Word, and reading the passages as the Holy Spirit leads. Our hearts are flooded with comfort.  Let us go to the source of comfort, God’s Word. There is an old saying, “Get under the spout where the blesses come out.”

Jesus spoke to the woman who had an issue of blood (Matthew 9:22) after she had touched the hem of His garment.  Vs. 21, “For she said within herself, If I may but touch the hem of His garment, I shall be whole.”  Jesus turned to her and said, “Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.”  When Jesus said “Be of good comfort” He meant “Have courage, Keep going.” This is such a precious event.  We too can believe and experience the Lord meeting our needs.

There is power in the word to comfort!  In II Cor. 1:3,4,7, Apostle Paul states, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we might be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. And our hope in you is steadfast, knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.”  Isn’t it wonderful how God uses us to comfort others.  When we are victors in our trials, and we come through suffering, rejoicing, we learn so deeply the comfort of God.  Then, we are able to be a  blessing to others who are suffering. Notice it is “in all our tribulations.”  In every trial we go through God’s grace is sufficient to meet our need for comfort.

Apostle Paul suffered so many very hard trials, and yet he was a victor. In  II Corinthians 7:4, he again speaks of the comfort he experienced in his trial. “Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you; I am filled with comfort, I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.” In verse 5, he tells of his very hard experiences in Macedonia, but then speaks of the comfort he has received from the Lord, “Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” 

Some of us have experienced this.  Sometimes God uses another Christian to be such a blessing to us, raising us up out of our despair and giving us a renewed victory, coming along side to help by giving us courage through the Word of God.  Paul also says in V. 7, “And not by his coming only, but the consolation ... when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me (Paul), so that I rejoiced the more.” Let us be one of those, who comes to comfort, not discourage another believer.

In I Thessalonians 4:13-18 we read a portion of Paul’s teaching that is very familiar to many of us. He speaks of the imminent coming of Christ to catch away His believers, the Bride of Christ, who are ready and watching for Him to return.  He ends this portion by stating in verse 18, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”  Oh, how these words comfort us!  We are looking for Christ to return at any time. Let each of us stand fast and trust God, and press on, and  look for the soon appearing of our Beloved, Jesus Christ.