Your Comforts Delight My Soul

Photo courtesy stockxchng/lindagr 

He is unemployed, laid off from a good job. The unemployment checks are no longer coming in. He continues to apply for work wherever and whenever he can. He hears over and over, “not qualified, over qualified, the position you are seeking is now filled.”

He sits at the kitchen table with bills covering it. He plants his elbows down on the table, resting his head in the palms of his hands. His fingers massage his forehead as he closes his eyes. “God, how do I do this?” he questions in his thoughts.

She stares fearfully at the pink slip of paper in her hand. Tears fill her eyes as she opens the door, slips behind the steering wheel, then closes the door. She grips the back of her head with her hand and straightens herself in the seat tilting her head back. “God, “ she thinks, “What am I going to do now?”

A mother and father are standing at the bedside of their only child. The stinging words of the doctor rings in each of their thoughts, “I am so sorry.” They embrace as the tears begin to fall and the soft sobbing begins. “God,” the father thinks, “I don't understand.”

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Mt. 11:28 KJV),” the Master promises. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (Jn. 16:33 KJV).”

The bills may remain unpaid. The sickness may need to be endured. Make no mistake about it, death will come. Maybe you are thinking, asking silently, “God, how do I do this? Why is this happening?” Believe it or not, He cares. Believe it or not, He waits to flood you with compassion. But in Him there is peace, for He is the Prince of Peace.

If you know Him, come. If you do not know Him, come. You see, this one thing I know, “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul (Ps. 94:19 NKJV).”

Suffering and Intecessory Prayer

"And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10 KJV)."

Job suffered horribly. God trusted Job to remain true. Satan was convinced Job would curse God and die. The end of Job's story excites us. He endured and God gave him double what he lost.

Are we missing something in the excitement of Job's blessings? We love knowing God reversed the fortunes of Job. We lay claim to this as a promise God will do the same for us.

There's a nugget of truth in this verse we may be overlooking. Focus on the phrase "when he prayed for his friends." There's tremendous power in this statement.

God had instructed Job's friends to bring a sacrifice and Job was to pray for them. God required this because Job was accepted by God (Job 42:8). The word pray, as used in these verses, means to intercede. They brought their offering to Job. It was Job who was to intercede for their errant ways.

The word captivity in verse 10 means prisoner. Job was a prisoner to his suffering. God set Job free from the prison holding him captive when he interceded for his friends.

We pour our hearts out to God when we suffer, looking for God to intervene. Job's restoration came when he prayed for his friends. Is it possible that God would release us from the bondage of suffering if we were to start making intercessory prayers for our friends? Just my thoughts for today. God bless...

We Have A High Priest

"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15 NKJV)."

This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It offers the promise to believers that God understand our worries, fears, pain, and sorrow. The significance of this verse lies in the three words, "in all points". This means our he has faced every trial we have, or will face.

The man Jesus Christ was flesh and bone. He felt the burning of a raging fever and experienced the agony of sickness. He dealt with the frustration of physical disability. He felt the pain of physical injury. The compassion showed by Jesus for the multitudes is a clear testament to his knowledge of human suffering.

Jesus Christ felt the pain of rejection at its highest point. It was much more than the rejection experienced between boy and girl, man and woman. The King of glory came to his people and they rejected him. Humanity still rejects him.

Jesus lived through the worry and fear of having to face another tomorrow. He understood the need of and the worry for food, shelter, and clothing. It led him to say, "Therefore do not worry , saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear?... For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things (Mt. 6:31-32 NKJV)."

Jesus Christ tasted firsthand the sting and sorrow of death. He was so moved by the death of his friend that he stood at his graveside and wept. More importantly, Jesus faced his own death alone at Calvary. Do we comprehend that the Spirit of God could not remain in Christ as he experienced human death for himself?

Christ became sin for all humanity. He became the sacrificial Lamb as sin was nailed to the cross. The Spirit of God cannot dwell in the presence of sin. At the point of his death, the man Jesus Christ experienced exchanging flesh for an eternity apart from God. Think about it, he died as sin, separated from God.

Jesus Christ is qualified to be the ultimate High Priest for all humanity. He experienced sickness, fear, sorrow, and pain. He experienced the ultimate death of facing eternity apart from God. God now sees humanity through the sacrificed Lamb, Jesus Christ. God experiences the deepest of pain when each man, woman, or child reject him and pass on into eternity apart from him.

Lord God, don't only give us the Spirit of Christ. Allow us to see humanity through the eyes of Christ. Plant within us the heart of Christ. Help us to understand the grief you experience when another of your creation slips into eternity apart from you. Help us to translate our experiences of suffering into ultimate glory to your holy name. God bless...