Words of Comfort

Dear Weekly Readers!  

May  we know today the Power of God in each of our lives!

Today I would like to draw your attention  to a couple verses  found in the Book of Isaiah and in the 40^th chapter.

Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people, saith your God.

The 40^th chapter is as it were the beginning of the Gospel story as written by Isaiah.   This wonderful book has 66 chapters, which is the same as the Bible.   There are 39 chapters before it, the same as the Old Testament, and  then 27 chapters after, including this chapter.  It is amazing how God has allowed this to be such a great picture to us, even showing us in this one book of Isaiah a glimpse of His complete Salvation story for us!

Comfort ye...

These words were written not only for God’s people of that day who Isaiah was surely addressing, but I believe a very much broader audience was intended, including each of us today.  Do you ever feel you need words of comfort? I know I do!  Are you ever worried about the future, wondering how there will be enough money to pay the bills or enough food to feed the family?  Do you have sickness in your family or children not believing in Jesus Christ as their Saviour?  Do you have neighbors and friends you love who are backsliding, or refusing God’s free gift of salvation?  The Word of God says be Comforted!  As Christians we have no need to be worried!  Apostle Paul said:  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; (2 Corinth. 4:8)

Who then should be comforted?  My People!  God calls His believers My People!  There is no getting around the fact that a true meaningful comfort is only available to those who are the ones believing by faith.  How amazing it is to be called by God, MY PEOPLE!  O what joy this should instill in our hearts!  God knows us, we are His!  We are a child of THE KING!  The one who made the entire universe and all that is in it!  We are HIS!  It says in 1 Peter 1:5 that believers are those:  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. There is no other power by which I want to be kept than by the Power of God!

Let us now look at who are the ones God calls MY People, the ones to be comforted!  The very next verse, Isaiah 40:2 says: Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.  These are the ones to be comforted, those who believe in the power of the cross of Jesus Christ! 1 Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

It is so very clear that Isaiah is here talking about the Saviour, our Lord Jesus, who paid the price so that we can be saved.  We also know that God created all peoples, and that Jesus came to die for all peoples, but some people have not turned to Him in repentance unto faith.  In the first chapter of Isaiah it says this: ¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.¹⁹ If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:²⁰ But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Let us not be ones that refuse to be Comforted!  Also, let us not be ones that look for comfort in any other place than Jesus.  Let me give you a brief natural example of comforting words that do not work.  Let us say that a man owes the bank much money on his home.  The man gets hurt and cannot work, so he is many months behind on payments.  If we go to this man and say, be comforted, and tell him all will be fine, will he be comforted?  No, he will not be since we do not have the power to release him of that bill, only the banker does.  However, if the banker came and pardoned the debt, this man would surely be very comforted and  joyful!

Let us know and understand who is the one that has pardoned our sins!  Let us be comforted in the proper way, by the power of the Name and Blood of Jesus!  If we do not believe that our sins are washed away in the blood of the Lamb and that we are made white as snow, Lord, give us the strength to repent and believe in this Saviour and in all the redemptive work that He has done for each of us.  It says in Revelation 7:14:  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

It was for me He died!  For me!  O that each could believe this by faith, and be open and available to be truly comforted!  Lord allow us to believe Thy Holy Word and in Thy Son Jesus Christ for our salvation.

2 Timothy 1:8:  Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God...

Today is the day of Grace!  Today is the acceptable day!  Come and Dine on the feast Jesus has prepared for His own!

Our space is filled up for this week, but if the Lord wills, I would love to share more from this wonderful chapter in a future week.

May God Bless your week!   John R.