Comfort

When we become enslaved to any one-sided affair we often tend to focus on a particular angle whilst overlooking another. This is a part of human nature, when we are offended our focus almost always moves onto the infraction from the guilty parties and we very seldom look at our part in the balance of truth on how we all arrived at a particular quandary. We are offended and yet we have upset another and so on. I suppose that there are always three sides to a story, but God will only ever judge righteously. Sure, as Christians we are instructed to put on the mind of Christ, in fact we have been commanded to rather take the offense even if we have been wrong as the guilty participant, this in itself proves the progress of our walk with the Lord; "To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud--even your own brothers!" (1Corinthians 6:7-8) – Our application within similar circumstances reflects our growth in Him. Our maturity as Christians can be measured. When the Lord Jesus was falsely accused of a crime He never committed, He held His peace, which in itself is remarkable. God requires nothing from us that He himself hasn't firstly fulfilled in the form of human flesh, wow! Bless His name now and forever more, Amen!

It is one thing to receive accolades from men but quite another when it comes from God. Our purpose in life must be to find commendation from God and not from men. Our examples can be found in scripture but Hebrews chapter 11 is a key chapter to motivate us to find grace in time of need.

With that established my thought must now move onto a balanced understanding of our God’s commitment to the suffering saint and this is why it is imperative that we understand that call, we have been summoned to suffer and yet I seemed to overlook this very important verse whilst conveying that message to those who I was looking to encourage; “For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” (2Corinthians 1:5) – Suffering and comfort work in harmony. What a glorious God we serve, although times will be tough, in and through it all He comforts us, wow! I cannot get to the bottom of God’s goodness when I begin to understand the love God imparts to the believer even through the toughest of trials. It was not so for the Lord Jesus Christ, whilst He hung upon the cross and although He knew no sin, He became sin for us so that we could escape the wrath of God because of our very own sin. As He hung upon that tree He cried out with a desperate cry of anguish; “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"” (Matthew 27:46) - He found no comfort in that hour while God the Father turned His back on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore our punishment and in that hour God could have nothing to do with Him for He was judging our sin as the Lord Jesus bore it. Let that thought filter deep within the crevices of our your minds, let it captivate your soul with just a fraction of truth and we will soon begin to get a glimpse of the extent of our Saviour’s great commitment to each and every child of God and His promise to us that He will never leave nor forsake us in time of our need. What a God I serve, we serve! And as John Piper says: “although salvation is free it wasn’t cheap”. And as our late beloved brother Charles Spurgeon put it, “Oh, the depths!” is all that we can say, as we look on and marvel at this stoop of Divine love.”

In conclusion, although we have been called to a life of struggle, remember that within that struggle we will always find comfort in the One who has overcome, our High Priest. He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities; bless His name from here on in. There is a day coming when our fight will end and we will all enter into His rest, but until then let us remember to find grace in time of need and to stay the course, even so come quickly Lord Jesus, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone