Tag Archives: comfort

Feeling Defeated? Rest in the Conquering King

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Troubled? Christ tells us we can turn to his speech in John 14-16 any time and receive comfort and peace from knowing the Father himself loves us and that someday he will bring us out of our present sorrow and deliver us to joy. He promises us hardship and trouble and travail in this life and that the unbelieving world will hate us if we are truly walking with Him, and has indeed often killed the saints, and many do so thinking they do God service as Jesus said.

But we are to take heart: he has overcome the world. Victory is secured for us. Keep holding the line, keep walking the walk. Stay the course. The battle rages on, but no matter what its outcome, the war is already won.  Let us abide in Christ and rest in Him. Let him fight the battle. Trust and obey him. He’s the conquering king and his enemies are defeated and routed, including the sin or the fallen condition you are struggling with, and even the great enemy, death itself, has been mortally wounded and will be only a distant memory sooner than it seems as we struggle in this life.

Turn your eyes to Christ’s cross and His empty grave and be encouraged, brothers and sisters. It is finished. God has prevailed and He will prevail in your life if you do not lose heart and desert him for his already defeated foe. So put away doubting, put away your own understanding, and trust in Him today.  Give to him any weight that hinders you from trusting him, be it sorrow, be it hurt, be it anger, be it the trust others have broken, and any nay-saying voice, be it real or imagined.  Confess it, express it, but release it into His victorious hands.

 

Posted in Bible and Theology, Faith, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

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Longing for your Heavenly Home or Fearing its Loss?

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)

This is my favorite verse to turn to in times of trial and distress of any sort. Here the Lord reassures us that though he has returned to the Father and we cannot see him face to face and feel his physical touch of comfort, he is preparing a place for us, his bride, to dwell in, and he will return again and receive us as his own forever. No matter how hard and dark and cold and lonely the night is here on Earth, in Heaven, we have a warm place called home and we can always call home and talk to our Father and our Brother and be loved and welcomed and encouraged and strengthened and made whole where it matters most.

Older translations of this text render “rooms” as “mansions” while we can dispute which is more accurate and which is more desirable, the epistles suggest God is preparing not merely a literal dwelling place for us in Heaven, but a brand new body as well. God’s standards are strict, and we cannot hope to obtain to them on our own, but he is making preparations to transfer us from our old broken bodies of sin (spiritual corruption) and physical corruption to pure, spotless, incorruptible bodies, to transform us from sinners into saints.

Let us not lose heart then as we battle against sin within ourselves and to resist the external pressures of the corrupt world around us. No matter how many times we stumble and fall, so long as we continue to choose Jesus and trust him as both our Savior and our Lord, we stand secure, because He will never change His unfailing love for us. He will never abandon us nor forsake us, nor will he ask from us more than we are capable of or more than he is willing to equip us to do.

So many of us when our hearts are troubled turn to our friends and family. Some of us are fortunate enough to have strong loved ones who are full to overflowing and have plenty to give us and meet our needs. Others among us are surrounded by friends and family as every bit as troubled as we are and often are also running on empty. For those in this situation, leaning upon one another spreads the pain around like a game of hot potato being played with toxic waste.

Christ urges us this day to stop a cycle that tends to compound and multiply our troubles and bring our broken hearts to Him. The Lord is the ultimate source of the spiritual and emotional fuel we require to live and thrive, and He is the only true source of healing, and only He can take the toxic waste, nail it to His cross, and truly remove it from us and those around us once and for all.

Lord, open our eyes. Draw our attention to the times when our hearts are troubled. When we are tempted to unload the toxic waste building up in our fallen hearts on our loved ones, remind us to stop and pray and surrender it to you instead. Show us also when our loved ones are seeking from us what comes from you and handing to us burdens that only you can carry. Give us the strength to refuse to participate in what amounts to idolatry and the courage to gently, respectfully, and lovingly, yet firmly point them to you and offer to pray with them instead. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

 

Posted in Bible and Theology, Fear and Anxiety, God's love, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

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Slipping in the mud? God has his hand out. Grab it.

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” (Psalm 94:18-19)

Is your foot slipping, stumbling and falling flat into sin’s mud? Trust in the steadfast love of the Lord–not to make the mud less muddy and falling acceptable–but to catch you by the hand and hold you up from doing a face dive into the mud.  His blood washes us clean, and his love can keep us clean. In the hour of temptation, take your eyes off the mud of this earth and look up to Heaven’s righteous king. He will give you the strength to safely walk around it and keep going on, hand in hand with him.

Burdened with a huge pile of debt? Medical problems? Marriage difficulties? Work politics ? Family drama? Afraid of natural disasters? What the government might do? What  your neighbor might think? If you’re drowning in a sea of fears and worries today, again cry out to Jesus. Let him take your hand and lift you up. It may not happen right away.  We often have to confess it all to the Lord, name what we’re afraid of (gasp!) and then loose it from our hearts, releasing that concern to him. Only when we’ve gotten it out of us do we often have room to listen to his voice in our hearts, receive his words of comfort and peace, to alleviate our grief, to soothe our distress, lift the heavy burden from our hearts, and give us joy and satisfy our need. Gratitude is our best response in that hour.

Lord, thank you for hearing our prayers. Thank you for consoling us and giving us peace and joy. Thank you for holding our hands. We pray in the hour of temptation, we would be reminded in our hearts to look up to you, and we ask you to strengthen us in our hearts to have the spiritual discipline to obey and meditate on your love, to hide in it from sin, rather than using your steadfast love as an excuse to roll in the mud like pigs. Forgive us for the times we’ve done that, wash us clean, and polish us until you see your son’s face reflected in us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, Fear and Anxiety, God's love, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

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When Mountains Fall and Rivers Rise

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)

Are you afraid? Are the walls closing in, the roof caving in? Are you teetering over the edge of a cliff, hanging on by a slim root? Do you feel overwhelmed by the circumstances of your life and like you having nothing to hold onto?

God here reassures the spiritual heirs of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, those of us who he has chosen from the every corner of the earth, that he is with us, that he cares about us and looking out for us. He asks us to trust him to be bigger than our enemies and all of our problems and hold onto the outstretched right hand he promises will be there for us to cling to even when our senses can perceive nothing there at all.

We can ask God for help and for strength with bold confidence, because he has already promised us he would do it, and God’s promises are always secure. He simply doesn’t work on our time table or do things our way. We often are looking too low, thinking too small. God often is way ahead of us, thinking bigger and grander, and the rewards down the road are often directly proportional to the amount of suffering we endure in the present–but we have to hold on and trustingly continue to love him to receive the good he has for us, especially if the particular payoff he envisions is intended to come in Heaven.

Lord, we thank you for your promises. We thank you for your steadfast love and the dependable strength of your arm. No problem we have is too big for you. Thank you for having everything under control even when we don’t. Increase our faith today. Strengthen our hearts to love and trust you more. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Faith, Fear and Anxiety, God's promises, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

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Forgive yourself

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,” (Ephesians 1:7)

In the “take your own devotions seriously” category, the day after my devotions reminded us, among other things, to pray about everything and always ask God for direction and his opinion, I let my husband talk me into going out to some marketing class on Saturday morning when I’d wanted to spend a relaxing day at home.  In a classic, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death” moment, we ran off the way that seemed right, without praying and asking God as I’d been warned to just the day before, and naturally we never made it to where we were going.

Obviously, we’re both alive and in one piece, thank God, albeit somewhat battered, but our car is done for, our finances are taking a huge hit, and my poor husband feels awful about all this, especially that I have a concussion that knocked me out of my wits for about five hours on Saturday. He blames himself, but he shouldn’t. It was really my fault. Rather than simply heeding my husband’s voice, I should have insisted we pray and seek direction from God. If we had, he might have told us to say home. We’ll never know now. But I hope I’ve learned my lesson–and that we’ll forgive ourselves, since I doubt my husband will buy my attempt to relieve his sense of guilt. :) But we must, regardless, not pridefully make ourselves more righteous than God. If He has forgiven us, we must also forgive us.

We trespassed, we failed, but there is forgiveness and redemption through the blood of Christ and a wealth of grace that He lavishes upon us. Let us learn from our mistakes, pick ourselves up, and move on in Him.

Lord, take our failures and mistakes and through your grace and mercy, redeem them for your glory. I pray you would be glorified and lifted up as you bring good out of evil. Strengthen us to forgive ourselves and grow in wisdom and a closer walk with you. Teach us your way and guard our step in you. I pray we would walk circumspectly, not assuming, but seeking your direction on all things. May we grow in discipline. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, Forgiveness, Grace, Prayer and Devotions

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Share the Comfort You Receive

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Giving back, turning and strengthening others when we have come through the fire, is often one of the ways God redeems affliction for our good. If we’re currently in the fire, though, that may not be a comforting thought when we’re bleating for relief from our pain ourselves.

Seek him, don’t avoid him. He promised us he would comfort us. Allow him to give you a vision today of hope. Open your heart today by pouring out whatever is stressing, frustrating, angering or hurting you before his throne. Carve time out for Him, the way we’d like our busy loved ones to do for us. Take time to bless him. Let’s also take time to bless others with the comfort we have received. That’s what it’s for.

But if you want to comfort others, first receive comfort from God. Draw on your own hurts and afflictions and remember what comforted you before you open your mouth to attempt to encourage your brother or sister. If you simply cannot at all relate, if you’ve never been through anything remotely similar to their circumstances, shut your mouth, offer them a hug if they’ll let you, and cry with them.

Lord, forgive us for all our failings to comfort and seek comfort from you. We bring to you today, right now, whatever affliction burdens us. We ask you to comfort us, and we thank you for your promise, and for your faithfulness and power to save us and bring good out of evil. We bless you, but let us not only tell you. Let our actions today be a blessing to you and bring you glory.

Posted in Bible and Theology, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

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