Comfort

At least once every year, usually around Christmas, I take the time to listen to Handel's Messiah. The blend of music and Scripture is inspiring and stirs something deep within my soul. I never tire of listening to it, and even sing along here and there! This past year was no different. As I baked cookies with my daughter, my mind was also meditating on the words that were being sung and the tenor solo "Comfort Ye My People" from Isaiah 40 really captured my attention.

When you think about "comfort" it usually connotes feelings of happiness, contentedness, relief, and peace. We are familiar with phrases like "comfort food" and "comfort blanket." Have you ever stopped and thought about why comfort is needed? The need for comfort is born out of pain, sickness, distress, confusion, fear, etc. Isaiah 40:1 says, "Comfort, O Comfort My people, says your God." God calls us to comfort others, and to be effective in this, it comes at a personal cost to the believer. In order to comfort those who are afflicted by the storms of life, we must understand it first hand. This means that we must be willing to walk down those dark roads of trial with a humble and teachable heart. I just wrote a blog on the need for going beyond mere survival of our trials and actually conquering them. Not only do we learn the lesson(s) that the Lord has for us in each situation, but we benefit from learning first hand what it means to be comforted by the chief Shepherd. Each trial gives us a very real understanding of pain (physical, emotional or spiritual), and by His grace we receive His divine care and comfort. This experience equips us to provide comfort to those whom the Lord may place in our path in the future.

Pondering all of this brought new light to a verse that I will admit I have always struggled with. James 1:2 tells us to "consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." I have never understood how to accomplish this. How do I find genuine joy when I am in the midst of emotional agony? Learning these lessons on conquest and comfort shed new light on this. Colossians 3:2 instructs us to set our minds on the things above. If we train our minds to view every aspect of our lives from an eternal perspective, even the trials, we discover that not only is God accomplishing a good work in us, but He is teaching us first hand how to bless and comfort others. I John 4:11-12 says, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us." God calls us to love others. It is amazing to consider that if we keep an eternal perspective and a teachable heart through our trials, we learn how to love and comfort others more effectively, and His love is perfected in us! This is cause for joy!