Tag: comfort

A Life with Stability

We all long for stability in our lives. When your world is shaken it is a frightening feeling. The Lord promises His children stability so that no matter what happens in your life you will have a calmness within. You will not have to fear the times present nor the times future.

Isaiah 33:6 And He will be the stability of your times, A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; The fear of the Lord is his treasure.

The Lord will be your stability and His Word is the foundation of a life that will not be shaken when the instability comes.

Luke 6:46-48 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

The Lord tells us what to do so that we will not tremble or be dismayed.

Joshua 1:8,9 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will act wisely. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

The Bible says that what the wicked fears will come upon Him. The wicked have a lot of fears because they do not seek the Lord not listen to His Word. They want to be in control but most of life is out of our control.

Proverbs 10:24 What the wicked fears will come upon him,
But the desire of the righteous will be granted.

The wicked flee when no one is pursuing. Guilt causes a person to run away from life and also to have unfounded fears.

Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one is pursuing,
But the righteous are bold as a lion.

The Lord says to be strong and courageous. Boldness, strength and courage is what should characterize our lives for we have One who is always with us and will never forsake us.

Hebrews 13:5 …for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”

When we are stable in our faith then not only will we have much joy but we will bring joy to those who have taught us in the faith.

Colossians 2:5 For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.

A Life that is Comforted

One of the blessings of being a child of God is that we are never without comfort. He is a God and Father of comfort who comforts His children in whatever struggle we have.

II Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

He comforts us so that we also may be able to comfort others when they have the same or similar struggles.

II Corinthians 1:4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

The Lord comforts us when we are depressed. Depression is an affliction. The Lord comforts us in our afflictions.

II Corinthians 7:6 But God, who comforts the depressed,

The Lord comforts us through His Word and His Holy Spirit. Go to Him in your pain. He has not left you alone. He said that He would not leave us without comfort. The word orphan literally means “comfortless”. He said He would not leave us as orphans but He would send the Holy Spirit to comfort us.

John 14:16-18 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

The Lord unites us through our struggles and through our comfort, that we might be one in Him. We need each other.

II Corinthians 1:6,7 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

Is there anyone in your life who needs comfort? We are the body of Christ. We are His heart, His hands and His feet. The Lord has allowed you to go through suffering so that you might bring comfort to others in the same affliction. When we suffer we become aware of the suffering of others. Someone else will be comforted through your love and refreshed through you.

Philemon 1:7 For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

We are comforted through the faith in the Lord of our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord is using you and you are not always aware of it. Keep standing firm in Him.

I Thessalonians 3:7 for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith;

When you spend time with Him and walk with Him then you know His love and experience His comfort. You also receive hope through His grace and are strengthened for every good work and word that He has called you to do.

II Thessalonians 2:16,17 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

 

A Life of Discipline

Most people feel the need for more discipline in their lives but fewer people are willing to discipline themselves. Discipline is the training that forms our character. A good parent will discipline their children with the ultimate goal of the child having self discipline. The Lord does not punish His children but He disciplines His children. In fact, He says that if you are without discipline then you are not a child.

Hebrews 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

The Lord disciplines us for our good, that we might become more like Him.

Hebrews 12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.

The Lord tells us not to regard lightly His discipline or faint when He reproves us.

Hebrews 12:5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;

He disciplines us because He loves us. Just as a parent takes special care to train and discipline the child whom they love.

Hebrews 12:6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

Discipline produces in us endurance so that we will be faithful to the end. Thank the Lord for the discipline that He gives you.

Hebrews 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

However, discipline is painful. Just as some children need more discipline than other children, in the same way, if we learn to obey and do what is right then we will receive less discipline from the Lord.

Hebrews 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

The Lord exhorts us in His Word to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. The word disciple comes from the word discipline. We are to have discipline in our lives so that we will do what is right. The outcome of a disciplined life is peace.

I Timothy 4:7,8 …On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Since discipline can be painful and it is very necessary in life. How much better it is to discipline yourself to obey the Lord and to do what is right than to be disciplined by Him, to keep you from further sorrow and shame. He has given us everything that we need to live a disciplined life.

II Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

Is there anything in your life that you need to change or that you have been slack in? Turn to Him with all of your heart. He loves you and wants you to become like Him. He wants you to know and experience the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Revelation 3:19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

Be zealous and repent so that you will not experience His discipline.

A Life that is Successful

Three times in the Bible the Lord says that if you will do a certain thing then your life will be successful or prosperous. This is a promise with a condition but it is well worth the work. However, unless your heart wants to do it then you will not be able to persevere. You must want to please the Lord in all that you do. This activity helps you learn to do what pleases Him.

Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

You must humble yourself before the Lord and ask Him how you can learn His ways. He says that He teaches the humble His way. God’s Word teaches us His way but His Spirit is what gives us the understanding.

Psalm 25:9 He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.

Again, the Lord says in Scripture, if you will meditate on God’s Word and delight in His Word then the Lord says that in whatever you do you will be prosperous.

Psalm 1:2,3 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Again, in the New Testament, the Lord mentions again this activity of looking intently at the Word of God and doing what it says.

James 1:25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Do you feel God’s blessing in your life? Do you need His blessing? If you have never done this then why don’t you ask the Lord to help you? What is it that the Lord wants you to do? He wants you to learn to meditate on His Word and live by what He says in His Word. Meditation is putting God’s Word in your heart and thinking about what it means and how it applies to your life.

Psalm 119:48 And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, Which I love; And I will meditate on Your statutes.

Go to a Christian who puts God’s Word in their heart and seeks to live by it and ask them to help you. It is a great reward and a great promise because the Lord wants you to spend time with Him and delight in Him. It is through His Word that He speaks to His children. He wants to communicate with you and wants you to fellowship with Him.

 

 

 

A Life of Belonging

One of the most precious truths that become ours when we become a Christian is that we belong to Him. We become one of His sheep and He becomes our Shepherd. Of course, we become His child in reality but the Lord uses the picture of the Shepherd and the sheep to show how much He cares for us. We all long to belong to someone and when we come to Him then we belong to the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us.

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

Before we become a sheep we first become a lamb for a lamb is a baby sheep. Being the Good Shepherd, He cares tenderly for the lambs and before they learn to walk He carries them just as a mother tenderly carries her newborn babies close to her.

Isaiah 40:11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

The Shepherd carries the newborn Christian close to Him until they become strong enough to learn to walk and then as a good parent, He teaches them how to walk. Just as a toddler must first learn to step out in faith, so too, the Christian learns to step out in faith. When a toddler falls, the parent comforts and encourages the young child to continue until they can walk on their own. So too, the Shepherd tends for the lambs until they grow and become sheep. As sheep they are still dependent on the Shepherd but it is in a healthy developmental way.

Psalm 23:1-3 The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

Once the lamb has grown and is a sheep then the Lord guides them. They are not needy for He supplies what they need. That is the meaning of the sheep not being in want. He will make them, at times when it is needful, to lie down in green pastures so that they can be fed with green, nourishing grass. Notice, He does not make them lie down in the desert or on the weeds. No, He is a Good Shepherd and cares for the sheep. Also, the sheep need the still waters to be refreshed and so He leads them beside quiet waters so that their souls may be restored. Sometimes we don’t like the slower times in our lives but it is for our good. We need the down times so that we can be strong and refreshed for the busy times.

Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

He will be with you always. He says that He will never leave you or forsake you. The Shepherd is always with you. Do not be afraid even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Hebrews 13:5 …for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”

In His prayer for His disciples before He went to the cross Jesus prayed that they would be protected from evil. You do not need to fear evil.

John 17:15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

No one can take you from Him or pluck you out of His hand. You belong to Him. You are secure in Him forever.

John 10:27-30 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

When you belong to the Lord then He wants you to “be longing” for Him. He is good and He longs to show His love to you.

Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.

 

A Life that is Loved

Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so is the greatest truth in all the world. Is His love real to you? God loves you so much that He gave His only begotten Son for you so that you might live in His love for all eternity. His wrath is poured out on sin and so to take care of your sin He took the wrath that you deserved. We are all like that…we get mad at the sins of others, and yet, when we sin we need to know that He took the wrath that was intended for us. We deserve wrath but we have been given mercy and love.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

When Jesus was here on earth He loved His disciples. He loved them to the end even though they failed Him He never failed them. In the same way, you will fail the Lord many times but He will never fail you. His love never changes.

John 13:1 …having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Propitiation means that God was satisfied with what Jesus did for us on the cross. There is nothing we can do to cause Him to love us any more. He is satisfied. We can not add to His love for us neither can we take away from His love for us. He loved us and died for us, once for all.

I John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

He wants you to live in that love that He has for you. He calls you His “Beloved”, which means that He wants you to “be loved” by Him.

I John 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

In Him alone is life. When you come into a relationship with Him then you begin to experience life. Eternal life begins the moment you believe in Him. The word “know” means “an intimate knowledge of” just as in the Old Testament when it would refer to a marriage relationship it would say they knew each other. They became one. In the same way, when you come to know the Lord then you become one with Him.

John 17:3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

It is only in Jesus Christ that we can understand even a little of the greatness of love. His love is beyond our human comprehension and His ways are unfathomable. The more you know Him and His love for you then the more you will experience the riches of His grace and kindness in Christ.

Romans 11:3 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

There is nothing that can separate you from His love and there is no one who can come between you and His love for you.

Romans 8:35-39 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When you come to Him then goodness and lovingkindness will follow you all the days of your life.

Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

A Life that Is Forgiven and Free

There is one thing that man can not live with and that is guilt. The Lord never intended man to live with guilt and when sin came into the world then guilt came also. The Lord made a provision for man’s guilt through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He died for the world that all who believe in Him may receive forgiveness of all of their sin. This word sin is all encompassing of everything that each person has done wrong that has brought guilt upon him. Jesus took our guilt as well as our sin. We are forgiven if we have received the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

All of us have believed the lies of the devil and have taken refuge in those lies. Those lies have led to our destruction and our sorrow.

Isaiah 28:16,17 Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,
A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.
He who believes in it will not be disturbed.
“I will make justice the measuring line
And righteousness the level;
Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies
And the waters will overflow the secret place.

The devil is a destroyer and his goal is to destroy your life and to have you experience sin, guilt and ultimately death. Jesus came to give us life.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

The devil destroys us through lies and when we are deceived we believe the lies. They may seem appealing at first but the end is death.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.

Death to the soul is the guilt, sorrow, grief, regret, sadness, depression and despair that we experience through believing and acting on the lies of the devil, thinking that it is the right thing to do. We have taken the bait of the devil and been deceived through our own desires and brought about our own death. Death to the body is not the end but only the door into eternity. Those who have believed and received Jesus, the Lamb of God, will go into heaven and those who continued to go their own way and never turned from their sin to the Lord, these will go into hell.

Hebrews 9:27,28 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

God will judge everyone first and foremost on what they did with Jesus Christ…either receiving Him or rejecting Him. This judgment will be just because God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the world.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

We must be ready for the moment we see the Lord for we do not know what hour or day that will come. The only way that we can be prepared is to be right with God and this only comes through Jesus Christ. He is the only way to God.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

The Lord says that today is the day of salvation. Once you receive Him then He gives you a new life in Him and sets you free from the lies of the devil and the sins that once controlled you. He sets you free to live the life that He designed for you. His plans for you are to live a good life and a blessed life, free of guilt as you allow Him to be your Lord and Savior.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

 

 

 

A Life in Secret

There are three things that the Lord says that we need to do in secret. Again, He loves to reward His children when they do what pleases Him so He offers great rewards for these three matters of obedience. The Lord says that He sees in secret and He knows what we do in secret. He says that He will reward us openly. If you read the lives of the great men and women that God has used you will learn that they had their secret life with the Lord. Those who are not faithful in their secret life with the Lord eventually fall just as a tree whose roots are shallow or whose inside is rotten will fall. Your roots must go deep into his Word and into the soil of His love. If they do then your spiritual life will be nourished and you will prosper.

Jeremiah 17:7,8 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose trust is the Lord.
For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.

First, when you give, you are to give in secret. You are to give to those who can not pay you back. You are to give to the poor.

Matthew 6:3 But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Second, when you pray, you are to pray in secret.

Matthew 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Third, when you fast, you are to fast in secret.

Matthew 6:17,18 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Just as roots are not seen but produce the fruit on the tree for all to see, so you too, when your roots go deep with the Lord, the Lord will be glorified by the fruit of your life as you bear His fruit.

John 15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

May your trust in the Lord grow through maintaining your secret life with the Lord through prayer and meditation, fasting and giving.

Psalm 1:2,3 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

 

 

A Life that Stays In Love

Everyone wants to stay “in love” with the love of their life when they get married. You may not be married yet and are wondering why this would apply to you. It very much applies to any young lady who wants to and plans to get married. In fact, that is God’s will for most young ladies, but not all. However, what can you do now to help your marriage, if the Lord should choose to give you that gift?

Every older lady who is happily married knows the “secret” to staying in love. It should not be a secret but for whatever reason, not many know it or do it.

Your relationship with your husband will be an expression of your relationship with the Lord. You say you love the Lord? We know that if you are a Christian then you want to love God. A measure of how much you love the Lord is how much you love others.

I John 4:20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love  God, whom they have not seen.

Just as God loves because He is love, in the same way, the recipient of your love should not be the source of your love but God should be the source. He can and will love through you.

I John 4:7,8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

The Lord loved you when you were unlovable and it changed your life.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The Lord wants you to keep yourself in His love. In other words, to stay in love with Him.

Jude 1:21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

The way you keep yourself in the love of Christ is to nurture the relationship and to not neglect it. Over and over again in the Bible the Lord reproves His people for neglecting their relationship with the Lord and slipping into a ritualistic pattern with Him. Most marriages fail because of neglect although nearly all begin with good intentions. Both people just get so busy and before they realize it their love for each other is lukewarm and then cold. Are you ever too busy to spend time with the Lord? Is your love just as fresh as when you first came into that relationship?

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

If you learn to be faithful in your relationship with the Lord then you will have gone a long way in cultivating an intimate marriage. If you learn to love, not based on what you will receive in return, but because the Lord has called you and enabled you to love then you will have learned the secret of staying “in love” with the one whom the Lord has called you to be one with here on earth.

If you are married: Just as the Lord wants you to delight yourself in Him and to want to be with Him, so too, if you are married, your husband wants you to want him. He married you because he thought that you did want him. Do you still delight in your husband just as when you were first married? Do you still get excited about seeing him? Just as God’s love changed your life, so too, your love and desire for your husband can motivate him to be the person that the Lord has designed him to be.

Titus 2:4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children,

This word “love” in this verse in Titus means to “be a lover of their husband”, or “to want or delight in their husband”.

 

 

A Life that is Faithful

At the end of your life there will only be one thing that matters and that is God’s judgment of you. What will you hear Him say? It will not matter how pretty you were, how much money you had, whether you came from a well off family or from a family that struggled to make ends meet. It will not matter if you had two parents or one parent or no parents around. It will not matter what others thought of you, whether you were “accepted” or not. There is only One who will determine if you are accepted and what He will say to you will echo in your ears for all of eternity.

Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

What is His will? What will he be looking for in you?

John 6:40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

Very simply, God’s will is that you believe in Jesus Christ who He sent into the world to save you from your sin…to die for you, to be raised from the dead and to ascend into heaven.

John 6:39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

Now this belief is not merely an intellectual belief. You can look at a chair and believe that it will not fall apart if you sit in it but it is not until you actually sit in the chair do you believe that it will hold you up. In the same way, you can believe in Jesus but if you are not reading His Word and doing what He says to do then you are only giving intellectual assent to his claims. You are believing with your mind but not with your heart. Those who will come to him on the last day and say, “Lord, Lord” and He rejects them did not believe with their heart but only with their mind.

Matthew 7:22,23 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

They did not obey.