Comfort Ye

Comfort ye

I have been earnestly praying for God to heal me, that His name will be glorified in my life. That is what I really want, but I have come to realize that His name can also be glorified by my response to this trial in my life. Whether or not God heals me, His name WILL BE glorified. Whether or not He heals me does not change who God is or what He is willing or able to do.

2 Cor. 1:3-4 tells us that God is "the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in ALL our troubles, SO that WE can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." Scottie and Chuck Alley comment in a book called Treasures of darkness, a devotional for those whose lives have been touched by cancer, that this is "just the kind of God who can step into our lives and take an evil like cancer and redeem it for the good of His people. This same God is the Father of Jesus Christ. He took the cross and turned it from a symbol of torture and death into the symbol of healing and life. He is the God who can take our pain and our suffering and redeem it for the good of His people.

One of the best ways to deal with one's pain is to focus on the presence of God and the needs of others. As we focus on God, He helps us to see our experience from an eternal perspective and equips us to minister to others who are going through similar experiences. Human beings give great authority to the voice of experience.

When we turn to God in our trials, we are afforded the privilege of ministering to our neighbors and glorifying God at the same time."

I cannot say that I am happy about being that voice of experience. I don't believe I have reached the level that I can say with Paul that I glory in my affliction, but I do KNOW that I serve a compassionate God who is ever concerned about my "infirmities," and that nothing is impossible for Him!