pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: comfort


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Work and Grow

Reading: Psalm 23

In general Psalm 23 is optimistic.  There is a trust in God that flows through David’s writing.  It comes from experiencing God’s saving presence and from having an intimate relationship with God.  David’s opening line reveals his trust: I shall not want.  The next few verses tell of how God cares for him.

Does such a trust and faith come easily?  Is a positive outlook always easy to maintain?  Unfortunately the answer to these questions is ‘no’ for most of us.  To have a faith and trust like David’s takes time and effort.  To be in any good relationship, we must invest of ourselves.  To walk closely with God, we first must spend time with Him.  We do so by being daily in His Word, by worship attendance on a regular basis, by carving out time in our day for prayer.  It is hard to do all these things consistently because it is so easy to sleep in, to make something else the priority, to wake up one day and to realize it’s been a while since we spent any time with God.  To really build a solid relationship with God takes daily discipline.

We build trust much the same way.  When we allow God to be in control or when we turn our burdens over to Him, we experience His presence, guidance, direction, comfort.  Through these experiences we come to trust Him a bit more.  Then we are more willing to trust and do so more easily.  And trust grows.  We come to believe that His plans for us are good.  And trust grows.

David’s faith and trust grows to the point where he can confidently say that he fears no evil.  He knows God has him.  May we work and grow in our faith to experience the trust and faith that David lived out daily.


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The Solution

Reading: John 21: 1-14

In the Gospel of John, Jesus has already appeared to the disciples two times, but they have not yet been empowered.  They are still in the “now what?” stage.  Jesus is indeed risen, but…  Fear of the authorities is maybe a little less now, but it is still real.  In the midst of all this waiting around behind locked doors, Peter announces that he is going fishing.  The combination of knowing Jesus is alive and being couped up for a while may explain his decision.  But for Peter, part of it may be the emotions he is personally dealing with.  Bold and fiery Peter swore allegiance to Jesus at all costs, even death, but had denied even knowing Jesus three times that last night.

So maybe Peter was seeking to return to something he knew, to his roots.  Up until meeting Jesus he had always been a fisherman.  We all find comfort in knowing what we are doing, in the familiar.  Out on the water with his friends, Peter probably found a measure of peace.  Doing something familiar probably took his mind off his guilt.

Sometimes we are not unlike Peter.  After a tough day a big bowl of ice cream or a bag of chips sure can help a lot.  For some, addictive or destructive habits can be where they turn.  We run the gamut with our coping mechanisms.  But our root cause and solution are the same: something has created tension or angst and we want to occupy ourselves somehow, so we reach out for what we know.

When Peter is in the boat and he comes to recognize it is Jesus on the shore, he immediately jumps into the water to get to Jesus quickly.  His fishing trip didn’t really fix anything.  Peter knows Jesus can.  In our times of trial may we too quickly look to Jesus.  May we too go to Him without hesitation.  Jesus is always the solution.  Always.


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Comfort Zones

Reading: Acts 9: 10-20

Comfort is something we all like.  Life seems to be at its best when we are in our ‘comfort zone’.  We are there when we are surrounded with the familiar.  While this can vary greatly from one person to another – one person’s paradise may look very different from another’s – each of us craves routine and known.  We like patterns and to be in control.  So when God asks us to step outside of our comfort zones, our minds naturally go to excuses.

Such was the case with Ananias in Damascus.  Life seems to be sailing along and his faith appears to be solid.  This resonates with us – when life and faith are good, all is well.  Then out of the blue, at least for Ananias, God asks him to go and see Saul.  Immediately the reports of Saul persecuting and killing Christians floods Ananias’ mind.  It is the ‘but’ we often come up with too when God is asking us to step out of our comfort zones.

Ananias is comfortable enough in his relationship with God to question this nudge.  And God is comfortable enough with Ananias to repeat the instruction, this time with a little more detail.  So he obeys and makes his way to Straight Street.  It was probably a slow and hard walk filled with questions, doubts, and fear.  But Ananias was faithful and was blessed to heal Saul’s vision and to baptize him into Jesus Christ.

God wants to work in and through our lives as well.  Just as Ananias did, we too are called to step out of our comfort zones and to trust in God.  At times we all feel this nudge, the Spirit’s leading.  If we are willing to lay aside out ‘but’ and to walk alongside God, we too will be blessed, maybe even experiencing the miracle of God working in another person’s life.  May we step outside of our comfort zones when called so that through us, God can bless another today.


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Let Us Rejoice

Reading: Psalm 118: 1-2 & 19-29

The Psalm opens with a timeless line: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever”.  These three truths form some of the bedrock of our faith.  If one took the time, we could each list the many ways that we have personally experienced each of these truths in our lives.  As we grow in our faith, we come to appreciate each of these truths more and more.

The relationship we have with God is the overarching relationship in our life.  He actively seeks to guide and protect us, to bless us, and to bring us joy.  God desires to answer our prayers, to bring us success, and to receive our praise.  He is our strength in times of doubt, our courage in times of fear, our comforter in times of suffering, and our light in times of darkness.  Our relationship with God is the relationship which we should model all of our other relationships after.

For our part, we offer God our thanksgiving and praise for all He brings to the relationship.  Our grateful response is to seek to bring others into this relationship as well.  Jesus commanded all of His followers to go forth to make new disciples.  Jesus set the example for what our relationships with God and fellow man should look like and then said to go and do likewise, to love others as He first loved us.  We do this by being love, goodness, strength, courage, comfort, and light to those in our lives.

The psalmist also wrote, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”.  As we seek to emulate Christ and to bring Him to the corners of our world, we too will be blessed.  As we share the light and love of Christ with others, we too will be blessed.  Verse 24 reads, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”.  Each day is a day the Lord has made.  May we go out daily into our world rejoicing in all He has done for us, drawing others into our joy and praise, into His love and hope.


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Seek the Lord

The psalmist speaks of times when our enemies rise up against us and when we feel besieged on every side.  In this life, there are certainly times when these things are true.  But our greater truth is God’s constant presence amidst all of life.  It is in His presence that we find love, peace, comfort, and mercy.

Sometimes we feel besieged by things from the outside.  It may be a situation at work that is not going so well.  It may be a conflict with a spouse or a child or a friend that is bringing discomfort in your life.  It may be a health or financial stress that has suddenly risen up.  As this “thing” consumes more and more of our time, we can seem to drift away from God.  But what we really need most is to spend more time in His presence.

At other times our struggle comes from within.  A temptation or sin can get ahold of us and that is all we can seem to see.  It could be pride or being judgemental.  It could be greed or jealousy.  It could be lust or coveting.  It could be any number of sins.  But one of these can become our focus so easily and we find ourselves far from God.  Sometimes this is because we are struggling to break free and other times it is because we have broken free but feel to guilty or dirty to come into His presence.  In these cases too, in that loving, caring, merciful, forgiving presence is precisely where we need to be.

When we are in one of these trials of life – whether from the outside or inside – we must seek God.  For some, maybe that is to physically go into the sanctuary or chapel to be in His presence.  For some it is to go to their prayer space at home.  For some it is driving in the car or walking along a path in the woods. God is everywhere do we can find Him anywhere.  He simply waits for us to reach out, to seek Him, to reconnect to Him.  In our trials, may we eagerly run into His presence and receive respite and relief.  In His presence we begin to live into His love, peace, comfort, and mercy.

Scripture reference: Psalm 27: 5-14


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His Love Never Fails

God’s love never fails. While it is true that tongues will become still and knowledge will pass away, God’s love will always remain.  Paul ends this chapter in his letter to the Corinthians with the reminder that faith, hope, and love remain with us, but that the greatest of these is love.  It is knowing how deep and wide God’s love is that allows us to hold onto our faith and to keep hope even in our hardest trials.

Since the moment we were formed, God’s love surrounds us.  His love continues to be with us daily, giving us comfort, strength, and protection.   We see His love surrounding many in the Bible.  A few examples are when He guided the people through the sea as He protected them from the Egyptians; when He kept David safe as Saul pursued him; when He comforted Jesus in the wilderness; and when He gave Stephen strength in his time of persecution and stoning.  And these are just a few examples.

Paul also writes of setting aside childish ways and becoming mature in our faith.  This is what we continually do on our journey of faith.  As we grow in our faith, we learn to trust in God a little longer, to hold onto our hope a little tighter, and to rely on His love a little more.  It is a process though.  We are never suddenly right where we want to be in a growth process.  It takes time.  We experience a setback here and there.  But we must keep going forward and striving to grow in faith, hope, and love.

God’s love never fails.  May we ever keep this locked in our hearts and written on our minds as we continue on this journey of faith.  Blessings!

Scripture reference: 1 Corinthians 13: 8-13


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He Is So Close

The voice of God speaks out in nature.  It roars in the thunder and whispers in the gentle breeze.  It reveals silent beauty in the sunset and lifts the heart with the song of the bird.  God has also continued to be revealed through science.  As technology has allowed us to peer further and further into space we come to better understand God’s immeasurable nature.  And as that same technology has allowed us to deeper and deeper into living organisms, we come to better understand God’s complexity and the fine detail of His work.

In spite of how big and intricate and vast and mind-boggling God is, He is also a God who seeks to know each of us personally.  He desires an intimate and deep relationship with each of us.  This relational God is best revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.  As God came and dwelt among us as the incarnate Jesus, we came to know Him personally.  In His relationship with man, Jesus revealed God as love.  This love was lived out through things such as hope, peace, comfort, forgiveness, mercy, service.  Jesus patterned what a life lived as love should look like.  It was shown in how He interacted and treated everyone that He encountered.

Through Jesus our God is so close we can rest in His presence when needed.  He is so close we can hear the Spirit whisper into our life.  He is so close we can come with our questions, joys, concerns, fears, doubts, praise, and thanksgiving.  The God of all creation, in His vastness and complexity, is still our comforter, our guide, our companion, and our friend.  For this I say, thanks be to God!

Scripture reference: Psalm 104: 1-9


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In Community

Loss can be hard to bear.  David pours out his heart ad h grieves for Saul and Jonathan.  Even though Saul had been difficult and at times antagonistic, David still offers up his grief over Sail’s death.  David was very close to Jonathan, Saul’s son, and yet in this eulogy it sounds as if he loved them equally.  In this sense it is a fairly common eulogy: it focuses on the positives of the deceased.

In our culture today the time immediately after the death seems to be the “acceptable” time to mourn.  Once the funeral is over society gives the impression that it is time to move on.  When sadness creeps back upon us at random times or because something reminded us of our loved one, we seek to find a private place so that we avoid the awkward or uncomfortable created by our sudden outpouring of emotions.

This is just the opposite of what it should be.  God created us for community.  In today’s writing from 2nd Samuel, David creates a shared way for the people to mourn.  He acknowledges the sense of community that God calls us to so that we may find the strength and support we need.  He calls us to be open and honest with our grief so that the healing process can lead us to a better place emotionally and spiritually.   David names and admits his grief and sorrow.  In doing so he offers others and us the permission to be open and honest with our emotions.  In community we can find strength and support.  There we offer it as well.

Scripture reference: 2 Samuel 1:1and 17-27


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Trust in His Presence

David’s lament pays tribute to the slain Saul and David.  He remembers them for their bravery and valor in battle.  He recalls their love for country and the grace they offered.  He puts word to the grief he feels over the loss of King and dear friend.

When someone close to us dies, we also do a similar thing.  When we gather for the wake or visitation we share pictures and other items that remind us of the one who has gone on.  We share our stories of time spent with our loved one or dear friend.  At the funeral we hear stories or memories shared by the pastor and often by those giving eulogies as a part of the service.  In these good and happy memories we release and relieve some of our grief.

In this text for today we see David’s trust and faith in God as well.  We too hold onto the same faith and trust in God.  He both welcomes our grief and extends His arms of comfort and love to each of us in our time of need.  We trust His presence in our time of need.

Scripture reference: 2 Samuel 1:1 and 17-27


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Hard to Wait

Our God is an everlasting God.  All that was and is and ever will be is in His hands.  God is the sole creator of all that has life.  He loves all of His creation with a love so big it is unfathomable.

At times we can feel lost and insignificant.  At times we can feel like God is distant.  At times life can be hard and we can question why something is happening or wonder where God is in the midst of a struggle we are having.

When we find ourself here, it is hard to wait for God.  In the tension and uneasiness we want God to fly in and fix it all instantly.  But sometimes we do have to wait.  Waiting for God to act is hard.

Back in Isaiah 40 we hear these words: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…. those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”  In the midst of it, hold onto this hope.  In the midst, be faithful.  Read His word, meditate upon it, go to Him in prayer, seek His presence.  Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.

It is hard to wait.  It is hard.  But we must trust in God and in His plan.  He is faithful and He loves all of His creation.  All of us.  Wait in the Lord, rest upon this hope, soak Him up, and He will strengthen you.

Scripture reference: Isaiah 40: 21-31