By Chris WittsMonday 13 May 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
Life has a habit of causing disruptions when we face difficult times. And when that happens and I guess it’s happened to you, you need to face up to things like loneliness. Being weary in your mind or body. There might be separation from friends or family, or the loss of someone close to us by death, sickness and pain. And on and on that list goes.
Sorrow is a universal emotion that’s common to everyone. For example, an old man in his mid-eighties said one day to his son, Well, what good am I now? Why does God leave me here? I feel so useless.
Or a lady who’s just lost her husband after 45 years of happy marriage. And she wrote a note that said, I miss him so much after all these wonderful years, I cry a lot and is it wrong to weep and feel such sorrow.
Comfort in the pain
These are real issues of life, and maybe you can relate to some of those today or, for example, a young man who’s just been informed by his doctor that there are signs of cancer and he must undergo surgery immediately. So these are real life experiences, and in these times we need someone who can bring help and comfort to us. There are times in all of our lives when there’s going to be loss, and we need someone to help us.
We could lose our job or a relationship. Or, as I said, a loved one. And during any time of loss and grief, what happens is we feel afraid. We feel we’ve lost something, you know, we’ve lost power or control and we feel alone and we need that someone to come alongside us. I think what it is, it’s needing a strength and a feeling of hope that comes from knowing we’re not alone. That the God of all comfort has promised to be with us and to be present with us in the times of loss. God’s very name is comforter or that word, which is translated from Perlas, God, who stands beside us listening to our complaints. Perhaps we get really angry and we want someone to listen to us or we’re frustrated or there’s that sense of despair and God says to us, Look, I am with you. I’ll help you. Is my arm too short that I can’t reach down to earth and help you?
Is my arm too short that I can’t help you to stand again? So what I’m saying today is that God, our God is a God of comfort. For example, in Psalm 34:18 and there are some tremendous examples from the Psalms about the God of Comfort, it says the Lord is there to rescue all who are discouraged and those who have given up hope. Now I’d like to say, too, that life begins and ends with comfort.
For example, a tiny little baby is born. This newborn baby is startled by the newness of life. The baby cries out, the baby is comforted and cuddled by probably the nurse trying to calm that baby and the years fly by. And that little baby in the end becomes a dying grandma or Grandpa. And at that point, this elderly baby needs to be comforted as he or she prepares for those final moments of life. So do you see that life begins and ends with comfort and every day, every month and every year in between as we live. It doesn’t matter what age we are. We need to be comforted. But also we can give comfort to others. God comes to us. And my favourite author is a man called Henri J. M. Nouwen, and he once wrote about the need to have a friend who understands us.
And he says this when we honestly ask ourselves which people in our lives mean the most to us, we often find it’s the people who, instead of giving advice, solutions or cures, have chosen rather to come and share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. That’s a friend who can be silent with us in our moments of despair or confusion, or sit with us in our hour of grief or bereavement.
This person, he said, who can tolerate not knowing everything? One who cares. That’s out of his book called ‘Out of Solitude‘. So the Bible says that our God is the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles. That’s 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. So to receive comfort allows God to come into our lives. And Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus said, If you’re tired of carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest, Take the yoke I give you, The yoke is easy and the burden is light.
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, thank you that you are a God of comfort, that you’re a God of understanding and we value that and take it on board today. Amen.