Our perfect,
Heavenly Father not only comforts us as we comfort our own children, He
comforts us with His supernatural strength and wisdom, regardless of the cause
of our distress.
We give
compassion, sympathy and heart-felt shared grief; but God gives supernatural
strength and power, infused into our soul to help us to traverse the issues of this
life (Matthew 5:4; Psalm 138:3).
God is not
distantly aware of our circumstances, He is right there within us, experiencing
each instance from within us. He cares about every issue, big and small, that
concerns us.
We often use
our relationship with Christ in us to explain our inordinate behavior in the
name of Christ. Yet, Jesus has no part in some of our goals and ministry, which
we do in His name.
In fact, we
often bring shame on His name and our own, by our interpretation of His calling
on our life. We make our plans and ask Him to bless them, rather than finding
out what He is doing and joining Him in His plans.
God calls us
to trust in Him with our whole heart, not to lean on our human understanding,
and to consult Him before we do anything during our day; so that He can direct
our steps each moment of each day (Proverbs 3:5-6).
We learn that
God's love surrounds us on every side of our breadth, length, depth and height,
because His love transcends human understanding; and He fills us through our
entire being with all of His fullness (Ephesians 3:16-19).
Prayer:
Father God, we thank You for calling us into Your service,
and offering us a personal, intimate relationship with You now as well as in
eternity. We are grateful that Your plan for us includes Christ in us, as our
treasure and our fulfillment (Matthew 13:44-46; Colossians 3:3-4), and that He
is present with us through every moment of every day. We find such joy and
comfort in knowing that Your glory fills us and shines out from us as we
traverse this world full of defeated people seeking more to life than what they
formerly experienced.
Lead us to these people on a daily basis and help us to
bring You glory as we obey Your Spirit's leading on how to turn their hearts to
You. Help us to lead them out of their private "hell" and into Your
glorious light; so they will know, as we do, the abundance of Your grace and
the comfort of Your love. We look forward to serving You for eternity.
Thought for the Day:
Our Father has
exceedingly great riches, which He liberally shares with those who love Him and
completely trust in Him; He strengthens our inner core with His Spirit; and He plants
us and fertilizes us with His Spirit because Christ dwells in our heart by
faith. - Ephesians 2:7
