LIVESTREAM HERE

A Thousand Sorrows for a Humble Servant

blog-comfort2

Christian, God will bring you through a thousand sorrows to make you the humble servant He wants you to be. And the best news is...

Jesus keeps you...with OCEANS OF COMFORT...He keeps your heart and mind...and Jesus empowers you...with MULTITUDES OF MERCY...He empowers your life and ministry. Such providential provision.

Maybe the last thing you think about during this time is oceans of comfort and multitudes of mercy in Christ.

Your soul feels afflicted. You feel your situation must change to be content or have comfort. Biblical life is not based on feelings and emotions. God does not promise you control or to escape difficulty. Life will always have times - as lovers pledge loyalty - of plenty and want, joy and sorrow, sickness and health - so long as we all shall live.

Comfort is not something you go get when you need it. Like a child running to mom when afraid or hurt. Or going to the store. See comfort that way, you’ll approach God like a vending machine. I’m sad, swipe card, out drops comfort. Downcast, another swipe, out drops relief. Not how God works. His comfort is altogether different.

The Gospel IS comfort. All of life is affliction; all of salvation is COMFORT.

We are strangers and aliens, not of this world. Conflict won’t end until Christ returns. John 14:1 let not your heart be troubled. I go to prepare a place for you. I’ll come again. Christ’s comfort makes you long for heaven. Sin removed. Curse fully, finally eradicated.

UNTIL THEN...God, with His people, comforts, with His powerful presence. Is. 41:10 I am with you. I will help you. I will strengthen you. I will uphold you. Continual.

Jim Murray wrote on December 25, 1973, “A view of the ocean is a great healer in bad times. It’s very immutability is a reminder that what has gone wrong in your little life is not a flyspeck on the grand and mysterious design of things. It can be an ocean of tears. But in the best of times, it can be an ocean of joy.” “It can take the life of a bather caught in a rip in 4 feet of water – or it can spare a man who bobs on its surface on a plank for two months 2000 miles from the nearest land.” For believers there are oceans of comfort and multitudes of mercy in Christ.

Overflowing comfort. Jesus is gentle and humble in heart. He sympathizes with you. He deals gently with you. He will never cast you out. He saves you to the uttermost. He is your advocate. Christ is your tender friend.

In the various trials and afflictions you’ve been through in your life, can you see God’s comfort? Even when you don’t feel comforted, you ARE. God’s comfort to you right now may not feel like a warm blanket, or a puppy, or being told you’re right. It may be a hug from a loved one. Or a knowing look. Or an note from a friend. You may feel it; most likely, you’ll know it.

It probably won’t change your circumstance, but it will refresh your perspectice; renew your hope, instill resolve, bolster your faith. Sovereignly and silently, God, by stealth, will bring comfort, joy, delight, and hope to your heart. It probably will not look like jumping up and down celebrating, but the settled assurance that all is well and will be well in Christ, who is your life.

He is a light shining in a dark night. A Lighthouse. The safety of a strong tower. Rest assured that Christ's oceans of comfort are fuller than the deep blue sea. The fountain of mercy has multitudes more than any supply on earth.

God’s promise in the Garden to crush the serpent through a Promised Deliverer, redeem His chosen ones, remake fallen humanity, renew the world - has begun to come about. Lash your heart to the mast of Christ, let any storm assail - blast full force upon you - you’ll never be moved from the fixed place God set you, upon the Rock of Christ, the unassailable, immovable fortress of Lord... ...in whose “cross is the gateway to joy.” (As Elisabeth Elliot put it), and in whose life we find life and limitless supply. Oceans of Comfort and Multitudes of Mercy. Jesus keeps and empowers you for His glory!

As the song says, "How deep the Father’s love for us, How vast beyond all measure, That He should give His only Son, To make a wretch His treasure."

SOLI DEO GLORIA