Life is hard, broken, and messy. There’s more month than money, anger and fear run rampant in our minds, and stress and anxiety are at all-time highs. The phone is ringing, the kids are crying, the boss is yelling, and the dog is barking; is a bubblebath with Calgon going to take you away?
Are you going to call the Ghostbusters? Where is a person to turn, what is a person to do? Where can you find comfort?
What is comfort? To console or have compassion in a time of need, to ease pain, allay fears, or soothe hurts. To support and show sympathy in affliction, or provide peace, relief, and reassurance. Comfort is to encourage and cheer on. Comfort is the little girl who came home from a neighbor’s house where her little friend had died. “Why did you go?” questioned her father. “To comfort her mother,” said the child. “What could you do to comfort her?” “I climbed into her lap and cried with her.”
Where do you go for comfort? We can find comfort in chocolate, mashed potatoes, or other foods and drinks. Maybe it’s a teddy bear or other favorite stuffed animal. A best friend can provide comfort. But there is also danger in comfort: we can drink a drink of Southern Comfort or turn to other substances and destructive behaviors, like gambling or pornography. These can provide a false sense of comfort, but harm us in the end.
Only God alone can truly comfort us and bring peace and rest to a troubled soul. In Isaiah 40, God told Israel during their difficult time, “Comfort, comfort my people. 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.” It is God’s gentle voice that strengthens and reassures us in the middle of our troubles. The psalmist cries out in Psalm 94:19, “When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.” The heavier our cares and troubles grow, we hope more and more in God’s grace that will be more powerfully real in our lives. God speaks joy to us from above and we are not swallowed up in fear or worry. Finally, Paul told the Corinthians in chapter 1 of his second letter to them, “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.” Comfort is God’s gift we can receive and give to others in need.
Life is so difficult at times you want to kick your dog and yell at the kids, but life is all the more worth living because Jesus lives. Although you walk through the Valley of Shadow of Death, you can fear no evil. He is with you and He comforts you. He is the Good Shepherd who makes you lie down in green pastures and leads you beside still waters and in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. He restores your soul. He comforts you and anoints you. He prepares a table before you, even in the presence of enemies, and surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. You will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, in Christ and with Christ (Psalm 23).