God as Comforter

I continually try to seek God and ask each week "what do we need to hear from You this week". I have to be very honest with you all and let you know, this past week has been very discouraging in some personal issues. Nothing unconquerable, but, I have spent alot of time seeking God as Comforter, and going back and forth on how much I am leaning and how much I am sulking! It's been an interesting week.

Alot of times, God uses the struggles in others lives, and the way they handle them, to reveal to us lessons on our own relationship with Him. I think back to the month of May. That month I found out that my grandfather had cancer. To put this in perspective, first of all...my grandpa is the single most influential human in my life. He and my grandma are THE examples of how lives should be lived out on this earth. So, to hear that the person in your life who means this to you has something inside their body, attacking it, is very difficult. Let me describe him physically, to you. He's 6 feet tall, almost totally bald, big, round Charlie brown head, HUGE arms and hands, always in overalls or work clothes (unless going to town or to church...he's a farmer). He's a very strong man, in every aspect...emotionally, physically, spiritually. He took over the family farm when he was only 12 years old, when his father died suddenly due to a very serious illness that killed him quickly. He is the rock of our family and everyone within a 100 mile radius respects him and comes to him for advice, fun times, a shoulder. He's just that kind of man!

As a little girl, I very vividly remember what it was like to put my hand in his. It felt like the largest, strongest, most callused hand in the whole world! I knew nothing could/would hurt me, as long as that hand was with me. ...Fast forward to May.

Here I stood, telling my grandfather I am praying for him...and he just hugs me so tight, begins to cry and whispers in my ear, between sobs, "Baby girl, I need it." Role reversal! It was very emotional for him to face this notion of mortality, sickness, lack of strength. BUT, what is so awesome to me...He never lost the faith. About a month into his chemo, I was visiting with him, and I asked him how he was doing internally. He said "I truly believe I am healed, and that God is not done with me yet." Don't you know...he made it through his chemo, never got sick from it, never once did it get him down and hinder his ability to work on the farm, and never once did he declare doubt in the Lord. He is now totally healed.

Now, here I sit in my situation this week. It is painful, hurtful, a struggle...but it is not literally killing me. If my grandfather can keep the faith amidst going through that, how can I not feel the comfort of God and the power of His hand? BECAUSE, I'm not allowing Him.

What is bringing you down? What is keeping you from embracing the comfort that comes from being a child of the King? He says, in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Now, if you have rushed through that verse because it's all too familiar, and you did not prayerfully read it..STOP, and go back and ask God to reveal to you how His yoke is easy in your life, how He has been gentle with your heart, how you can obtain rest for your soul. Often times, for those of us who have been in church for any period of time, these "familiar" verses become almost numb, we hear them so much. Read it again.

Can I say with total confidence, I have opened up my heart and and let God heal it from what this situation is doing? Do I have confidence I am healed, the way my grandfather felt the healing of God in his body? Why do I...why do we...carry around these burdens. We sing the songs of freedom, we pray the prayers for release from our burdens, our struggles...but, we then pick them back up and carry them with us into the next day, the next week. But, God has said He will comfort our hearts, treat them with the gentleness they need so as to get through it and be whole in the end, He has said to lay it down at His feet. Think of that song we sing..."We fall down, we lay our crowns, at the feet of Jesus. The greatness of His mercy and love, at the feet of Jesus. And we cry Holy, Holy, Holy...is the Lamb!"

Run into the comfort of His arms this week with whatever burdens you are bearing. Whether they be your own, or they are a burdened heart for someone you know. Give it over to God, so that He can show you His gentleness, His love and passion for you. We speak often times of our passion for Him, but it is always dim in comparison to the passion and love He holds for YOU.
Dear sisters, embrace Him. Allow Him to comfort you in the hard times. Allow His love to illuminate your heart and then radiate out of you and into a lost world!