Real Comfort
Just as Spring brings life and relief to the aching earth after winter has left her bare and dry, so the Word of God and His Spirit can resurrect our strength in the same kind of way.
2 Corinthians 1:3- 11
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.
8 We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 9 In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. 10 And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. 11 And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.
Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn’t rescue the suffering. The converse does. The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest Light to all the world. When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows. How can this not be the best thing for the world? For us? The clouds open when we mouth thanks.
Ann Voskamp
Discontentment vs. Gratitude
Sometimes it can seem as though life is made up of never ending questions:
When you were in high school: “Where will you go to college?”
When you are in college: “What’s your major? What do you want to do with that?”
Senior year: “Did you find a job? Are you going to grad school? Are you engaged yet?”
Being a college student, it is easy to feel the demand of our future. We have to get the right job, buy the right house, plan for our families, and it just seems to never end. There is always something more. Here at Campus House, a few women are reading a book together, One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. Through the book, Voskamp brings to the forefront this “more” reality that we have become so accustomed to. Not that doing all the aformentioned things are bad. They are very GOOD things! In fact great and beautiful things. However, in a world where we often find ourselves having to go from one step to another without skipping a beat, it is easy to lose sight of the little things in the process, and even become ungrateful for what we have already been blessed with.
Discontentment. It’s an awful thing. It’s an awful thing to realize we have all been guilty of this and I’m sure it’s not fun for the Lord to deal with it, when he has given us all so much good. Discontentment was actually what led to Eve disobeying the Lord. The serpent deceived her into believing she was missing out on something good. He told her all that she could have if she just ate of the forbidden tree. And yes, he was right. She got more. In fact she got brand new stuff. Brand new pain. Brand new sorrows. Brand new never before felt- shame. She quickly realized that the grass was not greener on the other side. In fact the beautiful pastures and land that God had blessed and set apart, Eden, became nothing but a memory as they were cast out into the dust. She had been lied to believing that she would be even more satisfied if she just…
If only she had been content with what God had already given her. I mean sure Eve didn’t actually have a choice to say whether she liked Adam at all and got stuck with him for life (that’s a joke lol), but she still had it pretty good. She didn’t have to work, had a companion, had God, and lived in complete paradise. I mean she didn’t even have to wear clothes or make up! But STILL, even with all of that the enemy was able to make her think there was more and better.
Well ladies, he is still using the same lie today. And many times, we still fall for it.
It is so, so much easier to complain about what we don’t have. So easy to complain for how things are right now. How often do we stop and say “Father, thank you for this moment right here?” How often do we say it when everything around us seems to be crumbling? This moment that, yes I am not finished yet, but thank you for bringing me this far- to this moment? Thanking God for exactly who we are, what we are, who we have, what we have? Thankful that things could be worse and they aren’t. Thankful that we can read this? Thankful that someone can read it to us? Thankful that we have the technology necessary to have this? There are sooo many things to be thankful for! But Just like Eve, even if there is just one thing in a garden of lavish beauty, one thing God has knowingly withheld from us, we find that one little thing. And we indulge. And we become sin sick to our spiritual stomachs.
Loves, this should not be. We must go to God with it all. Our scars- self inflicted and life inflicted. Our short comings, our addictions, our wants, desires. Yes! Come to him. Please! That’s what he wants and that is what we will always, ALWAYS need. But we must make sure, that when we come, we come with a heart postured by gratitude. We are living. We are breathing. We are… here. And we were fearfully and wonderfully made by a fearfully wonderful Creator. Just think about it. Pray about it. And if you find trouble and just don’t have the energy to even care. Take that to God. He knows anyway and is never ever surprised by us humans. Just take what you have to him. That’s all he wants. Let all of him, but for a moment, be all that we desire.
This is part one of the Taste and See videos. These are just two of the short stories from women who had to face tumultuous, even life threatening obstacles, but in the end found themselves able to continue believing the Lord and savoring His goodness. These are the stories that compel us to cry out “Thank you father”, believing fully that he loves us, has a plan for us, and that he is ALWAYS GOOD, no matter what.
This is part two of the Taste and See videos. These are just two of the short stories from women who had to face tumultuous obstacles and loses, but in the end found themselves able to continue believing the Lord and savoring His goodness. These are the stories that compel us to cry out “Thank you father”, believing fully that he loves us, has a plan for us, and that he is ALWAYS GOOD, no matter what.
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7 (Message Version)
“Hold Me”- Jamie Grace ft. TobyMac (See lyrics below)
I’ve had a long day I just wanna relax
Don’t have time for my friends, no time to chit-chat
Problems at my job, wonderin’ what to do
I know I should be working but I’m thinking of You and
Just when I feel this crazy world is gonna bring me down
That’s when Your smile comes around
Oh, I love the way You hold me, by my side You’ll always be
You take each and every day, make it special in some way
I love the way you hold me, in Your arms I’ll always be
You take each and every day, make it special in some way
I love You more than the words in my brain can express
I can’t imagine even loving You less
Lord, I love the way You hold me
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh, oh whoa, I love the way You hold me
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh
Well You took my day and You flipped it around
Calmed the tidal wave and put my feet on the ground
Forever in my heart, always on my mind
It’s crazy how I think about You all of the time
And just when I think I’m ’bout to figure You out
You make me wanna sing and shout
I’m so grateful and thankful for all You’ve done
Wish I could tell You in a short story or poem
But, all I have is my voice and this guitar
And You have my heart
To Know Mercy
When I want to do right, why do I do wrong?
The spirit is so willing, but the sinful nature’s strong, God.
I need some answers.
By your stripes I was healed, but this evil’s like a cancer.
And I? I just want to be free.
By your cross I now have power- do I forget serenity?
Because whatever I can tolerate, I’ll never let you change
Sin is not an option, but I still need your grace, LORD!
Oh have mercy on me! Save me from myself and deliver me.
Please!
Verse two and I’m still in a battle.
Feels like the flesh counts for nothing and to live in it’s a hassle.
Scares me when I see even the greatest Christians fall.
Guess the consequence of denial still applies to us all?
Selah.
Remembering to pause.
Think and pray before I act, knowing my enemy is small,
Compared to the majesty that is alive inside of me,
And if I’m bound to stumble, please just catch me if I fall.
Isaiah 46:4
