Isaiah 40:1 "Comfort, comfort My people,"
says your God. (HCSB)
Many people today would think of comfort in terms of health and wealth, a life of ease, even extravagance, being pampered with every conceivable pleasure.
This is not the biblical picture. Today's verse begins one of the great chapters in the Bible on comfort, and ends with verses 28 to 31 which have lifted our family through times of grief, pain and sorrow. Comfort, for the Christian involves some of the things we've considered over the past few days - hope, faith, love. You can also add encouragement, trust and assurance. All of these things come from our great God, oftentimes bestowed upon us by His followers. It comes from knowing that we have a loving God and heavenly Father who isn't far off as some would have us believe.
John Stott writes in his book "Basic Christianity" - "Many people imagine God sitting comfortably on a distant throne, remote, aloof, uninterested, a God who doesn't really care for our needs and has to be badgered into taking action on our behalf. Such a view is completely wrong. The Bible reveals a God who, long before it even occurs to men and women to turn to him, while they are still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops to seek until he finds them. "
Isaiah was called to comfort the people. We who have received comfort from Isaiah 40, from Christian friends, ultimately from God are called to comfort others. May we do so for someone who needs it today.
2 Corinthians 1:4 He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (HCSB)
Blessings,
Mike
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Isaiah 40:1-2
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
God's People Comforted
40 "Comfort, comfort My people,"
says your God.
2 "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and announce to her
that her time of forced labor is over,
her iniquity has been pardoned, ...
Isaiah 40:28-31
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Yahweh is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the whole earth.
He never grows faint or weary;
there is no limit to His understanding.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and strengthens the powerless.
30 Youths may faint and grow weary,
and young men stumble and fall,
31 but those who trust in the Lord
will renew their strength;
they will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not faint.
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