GOD...OUR COMFORT IN TIMES OF DISTRESS

[Minister Connie]

1 Corinthians:3-5} Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God (Who is the Source) of every comfort (consolation and encouragement). Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged by God. For just as Christ's (own) sufferings fall to our lot (as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them) abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also (shared and experienced) abundantly by us.

Have you ever asked the famous questions: Why is this happening to me? Why is God allowing this? I know I have! We need to remember that this doesn't show a lack of faith. It is quite normal, in our humanness to question some things. We will all come to that place where we will do this. I can say this because I have experienced in my life, especially recently, some very deep grief, pain and sorrow. As I'm sure you have also. The thing we need to learn from this though is if we will stay in these afflictions or if we will grow through them. God doesn't want us hanging on to things. He desires us to look at these things, learn through them, and then release them to Him so He can continue the work in us. Most of all I truly believe these things will bring us to a deeper place of intimacy with God. Without these things in our lives there would be no maturity, no growth and no anointing in our lives.

So many of us believe for instant miracles, and that's ok. But for whatever reason, sometimes God has us go through some things. Most of all it's to mature us and get our faith even more stronger in Him and in His promises. If we keep moaning and groaning rather than learning then we shouldn't be surprised to stay in the circumstances for many days to come. Sadly enough, many of us get into terrible patterns in our lives that we need to break free from. We keep repeating the same mistakes, making the same wrong decisions and doing the same sins over and over again. We need to determine to truly walk this walk at all costs.

Whenever we go through disasters in our lives we need to realize that God is not punishing us. Many of us feel this way because of the way we have been treated by parents, family and friends. We need to stop comparing God to them. His love, compassion, mercy and grace runs so much deeper than we can even understand. We just have to trust it! He is not a mean God who will dictate things to us to teach us a lesson for our own good. God will not squeeze us dry until all we can do is sit in a pile of dung and cry and not know which way to turn. God does not want us suffering! He wants us healed, delivered and set free!

The Holy Spirit within me so grieves when I hear a so called religious person say: I have to atone for my sins! This is something that a certain religion has brainwashed people in and is so against the Word of God! That's why it's so important to study the Word of God for ourselves to rightly divide. God is not pleased when we suffer! As Ezekiel 18:32 states: For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore turn (be converted) and live! Too many of us are believing false teachings given to us by men rather than believing God's promises and His truth. There is nothing we can do in our humanness to atone for our sins! That was already taken care of by the perfect sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It's time to take ourselves off His throne and put Him back on. It's not by our works, not any of it! It's by His free gift of salvation and by His grace.

So often we cry out to God and say: Lord, why won't you heal me? Your word says by the stripes of Jesus we are healed! Why isn't this coming to pass? We do this out of despair many times. God doesn't plug His ears to our cries. Quite the contrary. Jesus weeps when we hurt. He knows and understands our pain and is quite passionate to bring an answer. Many times our unbelief is what stops us from receiving what He has for us. Many times we don't seek the Source for our answer but try to ''fix'' things ourselves. We fail miserably when we do this. How many of us even think about praising and worshipping Him in these times? We are still very carnal and would prefer to complain. After all, it makes us feel better to moan and groan does it not? The answer to that is a definite no. We would find that we would begin to feel better and might even receive a miracle when we get beyond ourselves and start praising God in the most difficult times. There is no better medicine than to saturate ourselves in His Word, His presence and in praise and worship.

How did Jesus respond to those who came to Him for healing in the Bible? Did He say: Sorry, I don't have time for you? Or, did He say: Just endure the pain and go on? No! He moved with compassion and healed them ALL! God is the same today, yesterday and forever. He still heals today! How did Jesus respond when He had to suffer? He didn't want to go through it. In fact He asked His Father if there was any other way but to go through what He was about to go through. But He was determined to do the will of the Father and not His own will. How many of us can say: Not my will but yours Father? And when He was abandoned on the cross He cried out to His Father: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Don't we do the same when faced with the impossible trials and tribulations, sufferings and pain that we go through? Do we not feel abandoned? Yes, we do. But the thing is to draw even closer to God in these times. He understands it all, He faced it all. Why? So He could help us through! He knows the way to victory!

We have so much time during the day to do so many other things. Things which are not as useful to us as much as spending time with God. Which one of us would not run to Jesus if He were here today and invited us to come to Him for a healing touch? I'm sure we would all scramble to Him in a heated rush! Just because we don't see Him with our carnal eyes...He is with us...always, never to leave us or forsake us. His call is out there: Come to Me you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. That's the key! We need to come to Him! We have to take the first step. We need to take the time to rest in His presence and allow Him to do what needs to be done. Only things that He can do in us! And not just once in a while or when the mood hits us, but daily. We need to discipline ourselves folks. If you knew you were going to die soon and needed to take a certain medicine to stay alive would you not discipline yourself to take it daily? Well, guess what? When we stay away from God, when we stay away from His Word and when we stay away from the gathering of ourselves together, we are dying spiritually day by day and moment by moment. And eventually that affects our physical well being also!

Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly. It's time for us to walk into that abundant life. Notice I said "walk into." We have our part to do. Our prayer should be a couple of songs that I heard recently that deeply impacted me and I pray it will go deep into your souls and get you motivated to get back on course and be on fire for God, I want to share that with you now:

I don't want to be

I don't want to be a casual Christian

I don't want to live a lukewarm life

I just want to light up the night

With everlasting light

I don't want to live a casual Christian life

Let my life be a light

Shinning out through the night

May I help struggling ones to the fold

Spread cheer everywhere

To the sad and the low

Let my life be a light to some soul

We have too many casual Christians out there. It's time to get very serious and truly walk the walk. It's time for us to let others see Jesus in each one of us. It's time for us to be faithful and true to God. It's time for us to truly humble ourselves and be the Servant of all! We all know someone who is hurting, let's get out of ourselves and reach out. When we begin to operate in that kind of unconditional love, then we will find that God's blessings will overtake us. Let's come back to our First Love! Let us love one another as He loves us. Remember, how we respond to God and one another has everything to do with what we will receive. In this Christmas season let us not look to what we can get but to what we can give. Then let's continue the tradition all year. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Don't wait to be asked, give cheerfully and joyfully. God bless you. I love you, but Jesus loves you so much more than I ever could.