God Offers Comfort!

All throughout our lives we go through things. Things that aren't easy and that usually causes pain in our hearts, like death of someone close to us, divorce, not having any friends, depression, fighting with your family, cancer, loss of Jobs ... When these things happen we look everywhere to find comfort, and a lot of times we look and can't find it any where. God desires to be close to to us. He wants to have close relationship with us and walk through life with us. He longs to comfort our hearts because when we allow God to comfort our hearts, our relationship with Him is brought to a whole new level. He will comfort your heart if you allow Him. Then He will use you to comfort others by showing them the same comfort He has shown you.

2 Corinthians 1:3-11
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.
8 We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters,[a] about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 9 In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. 10 And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. 11 And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.

Do you need God to comfort your heart? Is there someone around you that needs you to comfort them because they are going through the same thing you went through?

The Gospels As Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale

According to the part of the story God has allowed us to see, the Haunting we sense is his calling us forth on a journey. The resurrection of our heart requires that the Sacred Romance be true and that is precisely what the Scriptures tell us. As Frederick Buechner reminds us in his wonderful book Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale, the world of the gospel is the world of fairy tale, with one notable exception:

It is a world of magic and mystery, of deep darkness and flickering starlight. It is a world where terrible things happen and wonderful things too. It is a world where goodness is pitted against evil, love against hate, order against chaos, in a great struggle where often it is hard to be sure who belongs to which side because appearances are endlessly deceptive. Yet for all its confusion and wildness, it is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily ever after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name . . . That is the fairy tale of the Gospel with, of course, one crucial difference from all other fairy tales, which is that the claim made for it is that it is true, that it not only happened once upon a time but has kept on happening ever since and is happening still.

Let us explore together the drama that God has been weaving since before the beginning of time, which he has also placed in our hearts. Who are the main players in this Larger Story? What is the plot? How do we fit in? As we rediscover the oldest Story in the world, one that is forever young, we journey into the heart of God and toward the recovery of our own hearts. For perhaps God would be reason enough to stay open to the Romance if we knew he would keep us safe. And therein we experience a great fear and confusion.

(The Sacred Romance , 46) John Eldredge

FREEDOM!

There are many reasons that we follow God. We follow Him because He saved us from our sins and died on the cross for us. We follow Him because He loves us and we love him. Today let’s look at another reason to follow God.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-30
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Jesus tells us to follow Him, because He has rest for us. He tells us to follow Him because He sees all of the stuff going on in our lives that is hard for us to deal with. Jesus has made a way for us to give all of the baggage we carry to Him and he will carry it for us. He is the strongest person ever, He is God. He died for us so that we don’t have to carry the baggage by ourselves.

SO WHAT?

If you have crazy stuff going on in your life right now, go back and read Matthew 11:28-30 out loud and then spend time praying. Ask God to take the baggage you’ve been carrying away from you and ask Him to give you a new start in life. Remember, baggage doesn’t have to be big huge sins, it can be anything. If your worrying about school or if you and your best friend are going through a hard time, you can give that to God and He will carry it for you. Today is a day to let go of the things that weigh you down and to let Jesus come in.

"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles."
Charlie Chaplin