(2 Corinthians 1:3-7)
Finding comfort in those difficult days. Many of you today are just trying
to make it through until the end of the week. You are burdened by many
troubles. You have mountains in your life that are so large, you are just
waiting for them to crush you. You woke up this morning with little hope,
clinging to that small measure of faith that today, maybe today you might
get
that breakthrough you are looking for. You are tired, weary, almost without
enough energy to go on much longer. Right now, as much as anything, you are
hoping and praying for a bit of comfort in the midst of the trials, a little
rest from carrying the burdens weighing you down. My friend, put your
burdens down, quit thinking for a few minutes about the circumstances you
are
facing, and let God, our creator, comfort you today.
As you know, nobody can think clearly, make wise decisions when they are
tired. Many times, we compound the problems in our life by making hasty,
non-prayerful decisions in the heat of the moment without thinking. Today,
go to God. Ask Him to do nothing more than comfort you and give you rest.
Jesus said, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest." I sense in my spirit today that many of you simply need to go to
God today and find that rest. Listen, the problems you have didn't happen
overnight, and unless God decided to miraculously work in the situation, won't
go away overnight. The problems happened over a period of time, and God
usually uses a period of time to work them out.
This is hard for me to write because I am a very motivated, action-oriented
person that likes to work until the problems are solved, then rest. But
that
isn't always practical. Many times God tests us through different
problems, and He may not work things out on our time schedule. One of the
hardest lessons for me to learn was that there are days, there are times,
when I
just need to stop, relax, let God comfort me for a time, and let the Lord
carry my burdens. What this really is starting to boil down to, my friend, is
an issue of faith. We are so worried, work so hard, and get ourselves in such
difficult problems out of a lack of faith. Faith is simply believing God
can,
and will do exactly what He says in His Word. The reason it is hard for me
to take that time of comfort is because of a lack of faith. I just don't
trust God to work things out, so I stay busy trying to do it myself. I am
not saying we shouldn't work hard, be concerned about the issues in our
life and
try to work things out...but are we doing it our way, in our strength, or
God's way, in His strength???
My prayer for you today is to take a day of rest. Go to school, go to work,
do the things you do in a normal day, but rest from the worry and concerns
of
your problems and circumstances. Let God give you rest today from your
burdens. Let Him comfort you in the midst of your trials. Let Him simply
love you today. In addition, exercise that measure of faith He has given
each one of us and start to trust Him more. Tomorrow, you will be fresh,
rested, with a renewed confidence in God, and then sit down with God and let Him
start to give you His plan for handling your problems. He promised to, and
He will. You just need to trust Him.
