Tag Archives: Comfort

The Blessings of Struggles

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No one like struggles. No one likes trials. We just don’t. They aren’t run. They aren’t a joy. They aren’t things that we like.

Whether it be tragedy, whether it be a an issue in family or relationships, whether it be something in your job, something in your church, none of like what CS Lewis called “the problem of pain.”

But, there are blessings in struggles. There are blessings in trials. There are. We may not see them at the time of these struggles. But there are things that can bless us, no matter what the trial may be.

What? What could that be?

Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 today:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

The blessings of struggles are this. First, when we struggle, when we are low, when we are beaten down, God comforts us.

At our lowest moment, God’s grace is the greatest in our lives. At our weakest time and place, God is most there. When we are most downcast, heartbroken, distraught, depresses, ashamed, angry, embarrassed, whatever.

It is that moment that God most wants to give you comfort.

Today, God longs to comfort you. No matter what you are going through, God longs to give you comfort. He longs to console you. He longs to wrap you in His arms.

Let Him. He is there. Even if you can’t feel it. He is there. He will not leave you. No matter what is going on in your life today. He will not leave you.

Paul tell us though, that are are other blessing in our struggles. Because of our struggles, we can console others. We can tell those that are hurting that we have been there. They are not alone. We understand. We know.

God will you use the pain in your life right now, to be a blessing to someone else.

He will. That’s what He does.

If we can give that pain to Him, allow Him to have it, allow Him to give us grace, He will use that pain to help others.

That’s what He does. He redeems everything.

Today, no matter what you are going through, in time, God will use it for a blessing. Today, hold on. Hold fast. Cling to Him.

And know that in His time, He use it. Allow Him to comfort you today. And in time, you will be able to comfort others.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

To the Thirsty

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Very few passages in the Bible start off, hey, those of you that are doing just great, I’ve got something to tell you. That’s not how most the Bible sounds. In fact, in the few cases are talking to the one’s that have pretty well off, the message is either this – be careful, don’t get confidant right now, or give God the praise for what’s going on.

But, that’s not most of scripture. Most of the Bible is like what we see here in Isaiah.  Listen to what the word says in Isaiah 55:1-3:

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

To those of you that are are thirsty, come to the water. To those of you that have no money, come, buy and eat.

You are spending your time, your money, your effort on those things which do not satisfy. Come, find the things that do. Come, find the things that give life. Come, and on be thirsty.

Today, if you are thirsty, there is hope. Today, if your soul is parched, there is hope. Today, if you are hungry, if you are worn out, if you are tired, there is hope.

The Bible is a love story written to the weak, to the sinful, to the broken. It is God’s act to love to those that feel unlovable. It’s God’s sign of forgiveness to those that feel like they can’t be forgiven. It’s God’s mercy to those that feel like they don’t deserve God’s mercy.

Today, if you are thirsty, come. There is a God that longs to give you water and to give you life. If you are tired, come. There is a God that longs to give you rest. If you are broken, come. There is a God that longs to put you together.

Come and find what you soul needs. Today, if you are in need, there is a God who longs to meet that need. Today, to all the thirsty, come, and drink from God’s living water. Come and lay your burdens down before God. Come and receive His life. Come and live.

Today, to all that need. God is there.

Comfort

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God desires good things for us all. For every one of us. Good things. Life. Peace. Joy. Comfort. God wants us to know life as it was intended to be.

We see in the very beginning of the Bible that God’s desire for His people is for good things. He walks with them in the cool of the evening. He wants to know them, and them to know Him. He desires that relationship.

We also see soon thereafter, through the choices of Adam and Eve, that sin enters in. They choose to disobey God, and instead of the comfort God wanted them to have, instead of the relationship God wanted them to have, toil and trouble began.

That wasn’t God’s perfect will for them, nor is it His perfect will for us. Comfort. Peace. Relationship. That’s what God wants for us. That’s what God wants to give to us.

Listen to what God says today in Isaiah 40:1-5:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Comfort. That’s what happens at Christmas. Through Jesus’ birth God walked among us, talked among us, dwelt among us. So that we could be saved. Healed. Forgiven. Be made whole.

Receive comfort.

Today, in your pain, in your hurt, in your loss, in your sin, God’s desire for you is comfort. Comfort for my people is what the word says.

Today, no matter where you are in your walk with Him, may each of us turn to Him and find that comfort. And in that comfort, may we find the life and peace that we were created for.