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Heavenly comfort
Isaiah 40 v 1 & 2
- HCSB
“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak
tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is
over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.”
Every human being needs comfort in life. Comfort, with the quiet satisfaction and rest it brings, is the most important thing in the life and death of every human being.
The question: "What is your only comfort in life and in death?" is a very personal question that can be uncomfortable. It's hard to look inside yourself. It's easy to spot other people's problems, but not so easy to look at yourself.
True comfort can only be found in God, because the greatest reason for your unhappiness is the sadness that the sin that stands between you and God, causes.
The content of the comfort that comes only from God involves in the first place that you must be delivered from the tyranny of your own self. That is, I do not belong to myself, but to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
It means that I am the property of God with body and soul, in life and death, because Jesus bought me with his blood. He paid the full ransom with his life to deliver me from the power of evil.
The comfort I find in this is the knowledge that the Father takes me under his very special care. He preserves me in such a way that everything that happens to me serves my own good.
This comfort further involves the Holy Spirit dealing with me in a special way. He assures me through the word and sacraments of eternal life and He changes me so that I want to live for God. He replaces the selfishness, enmity, hatred, envy, and anger in my life with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.
How do I find this
heavenly Comfort?
The way to this
comfort is the way of knowledge. It does not start with what I have to do, but
with what I need to know. And even in that, I'm not on my own. The Holy Spirit
brings me to what I need to know.
There are three things I need to know:
i. How great is my sin and misery.
Like the prodigal son, I must repent.
ii. How I am delivered from all my sin and misery.
I must believe the gospel that Jesus Christ bore the death penalty in my place
there on Calvary on the cross and that He overcame death so that I might live.
iii. How I should be thankful to God for such a salvation.
I must let myself be led by the Spirit in a life characterized by love
for my
neighbor and God.
What is your only comfort in life and in death?
My only comfort in
life and in death is that I belong to Jesus Christ.
Find your comfort
with our Lord. Heed Jesus' invitation
(Matt. 11 v. 28 - 30):
“Come to Me, all of you who are
weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and
learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest
for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Amen
