Comfort in Loneliness

What comforts you in your loneliness?

• Do you have a friend you can call?

• Do you have a book that touches your heart? Do you have a favourite song that cheers you up?

• Do you know a Christmas carol that you can sing with a little joy?

• Do you have a happy memory that makes you smile?
  

 Are you overwhelmed by fear and bitterness? Please don't give up!

Maybe you have a neighbour who is also lonely. Can you give some food or groceries to a neighbour who has nothing?

Jesus was also lonely on this earth. He found comfort in the Psalms.

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.

I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me.

He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness! Psalm 57:1–3 ESV

Jesus was fully satisfied in the love of the Father in heaven before creation, but he came to us here to comfort you. 

Here on earth he knew what loneliness was. He exposed himself to loneliness to comfort you in your loneliness.

When Jesus was hanging on the cross, he prayed in despair.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? ... Psalm 22:2

But in the end he prayed to the Father:

And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last. Luke 23:46 NKJV

This is good prayer if you are dying, but you can also pray it if you feel like dying. God raised Jesus from the dead. He wants to raise you up from your depression.

You can surrender your spirit into God's loving hands now. He loves you.

When God lifts you out of the pit of despair, you will know how to comfort others.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 ESV
 

Victims Need Healing

 The Hebrews were slaves in Egypt for 400 years. Towards the end of this time, hardship became terrible agony. Finally their male babies were slaughtered by the Egyptians. Their life was unbearable and they cried out to God.

We could think of the refugees sacrificing everything to escape the agony of tyranny in North Korea, much worse than in the old East Germany.

When I was in Australia in 1972, I studied psychology at university. I read that quite a few immigrants from Eastern Europe after the war had psychiatric disorders, especially paranoia, that is, delusions of persecution.

When you feel threatened all the time, you can internalise fear in such a way that you see threats where there is no threat.

Panic can become a habit. With this extreme fear comes despair, depression, anger and hatred.

Persecuted slaves and captives are always afraid of betrayal because that is their life experience.

Trafficked prostitutes sometimes have the opportunity to report to the police, but they do not know whether a police officer is trustworthy or in league with the pimps.

We have read recently about children who were sexually abused in churches or religious schools. Who can these children trust? Who would they believe?

There are Christian women who are cruelly controlled by their narcissistic husbands. At home the abusers are arrogant and bossy, but at church they are radiant Christians.

When the wife leaves her husband, she is judged as the guilty one.

When people are broken, they not only need a deliverer to rescue them from captivity. They also need miraculous healing for their broken hearts.

In the story of Moses in Exodus, we see how God delivered the Hebrews through dramatic miracles. God punished the Egyptians with ten terrible plagues, but the Hebrews lived in another region, Goshen, and they were spared.

Then two million Hebrews were trapped in an ambush on the shore of the Red Sea. Pharaoh with his army had chased after them. Without a miracle, they were as good as dead.

There are Christians today who claim that God only ordained miracles for Bible times, but nor for us today, as if miracles were a special offer for a limited time only.

This religious idea is simply cruel, blasphemy. God is love. He does not change.

You don't need a miracle until you need a miracle.

There are so many broken and enslaved people today.

I know Christian women who visit brothels. In one year they discovered and freed four enslaved prostitutes.

Liberation from slavery is absolutely necessary, but it is not enough.

Where will you go after you die, heaven or hell? It makes no difference whether you lived in a brothel or a palace

But there are so many Christians who only know Jesus to some extent. They believe that their sins are forgiven and they hope to go to heaven after death.

But in the Bible we see Jesus as the healer and deliverer who completely transformed broken people. 

You may have been set free from abuse, but the aftermath of trauma is still a torment.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3 ESV

It is not enough to save people from sin. They need care and healing for the aftermath of sin, from their own sins and from the sins of others who have tormented and broken them.

 

Grace before Law

 God has given us a conscience to warn us against sin. Without a conscience, we are lost in darkness.

But without the truth in the Bible, our conscience can be twisted by our culture. There are religious people who murder their daughters because they have supposedly sinned. A twisted conscience can even justify murder.

God gave us his laws because our conscience needs to be trained.

God wanted to teach us that we should not marry our close relatives. That's what we read in the Torah, the laws that Moses received from God.

But before the law came God's grace.

Abraham married his half-sister, but God blessed her.

Moses' parents were close relatives.

Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years. Exodus 6:20 NIV84

Before the law, this was not a sin. Before the law, we see the grace of God.

When missionaries went around the world, they found married couples who were brother and sister. Sometimes these couples were forced to annul their marriage.

Sarah was the half-sister of Abraham. Were the missionaries right?

Of course everyone should learn to obey God's rules about marriage, but should already established marriages be broken up? That is another question.

God's commandments are a light that enables us to see God's justice.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105 NIV84

On the other hand we can try to obey God's Word, but fail again and again. We need not only God's written word, but also an open heart to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4 NIV84

I was once gripped by resentment.

I used to be in a church where the pastor was very authoritarian over everything and everyone. He had tried to solve problems in my family, but he had been very bossy and manipulative.

I felt helpless and angry because the pastor had disrespectfully controlled me and my family.

I played a kind of video drama in my imagination, in which I firmly contradicted the pastor.

This was repeated over and over again. Each time I repented because I knew I had to forgive.

But my repeated prayers of confession did not change anything. My wounded feelings were not healed.

Finally, I talked openly to God.

"Dear God. You see all my thoughts. What do you think about it?"

Immediately the answer from God came to my mind.

"You cannot forgive this man because you have not forgiven yourself. You should have resisted then, and you blame yourself for your weak submission."

I saw immediately that God was on my side. I forgave myself and I felt truly liberated.  

So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. Galatians 5:1 NLT

A Hearing Heart

King Solomon was humble in the beginning and wanted to please God. He asked God for wisdom so that he could rule justly.

But we need to look at the text more closely. What is the essence of this wisdom that Solomon received from God?

So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people? 1 Kings 3:9 AMP

First, we need to listen to our own hearts when we feel pangs of conscience. We all experience these conflicts. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve ignored their conscience.

But it is not enough just to obey our conscience. Our conscience can be shaped by our upbringing, our culture and our religion.

Our conscience can be too liberal or too strict.

There are Christians who consider sex before marriage normal. I cannot understand why they do not feel painful remorse.

On the other hand, there are women who have had a very strict religious upbringing. They have learned to regard sexual feelings as sinful. When they are engaged and kiss their fiancé, they feel guilty. Even after they are married, they can’t enjoy sex.
 
If you have a listening heart, your heart will be open to God's word. You will learn from the Bible that sex before marriage is forbidden.

You will also learn that sex with your mate should be a great joy.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine; Song of Solomon 1:2 ESV

There are laws in the Bible that are meant to sharpen our conscience. But there are also teachings that are meant to free us from a legalistic conscience.

Only through divine wisdom will your conscience be cleansed and sanctified but also freed from legalism.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 ESV

God and Mother Love

 You were created for love. How can you say that when we see so much hatred and cruelty around us?

How did love come into being between mother and child? Why do we long for love even when we do not know how to find it?

Who is the source of real love? Only God, who invented mother love.

Our human desire for love is often corrupted and twisted, but not destroyed.

Who is the source of real love? Only God, who invented mother love.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! Isaiah 49:14–15 NIV84

Jesus often spoke about love.

He spoke of the limited love of natural sinful people, and the unlimited love of God.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Matthew 5:43–44 NIV84

Love is generous and kind.

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:9–11 NIV84

Genuine love is always practical. Whoever doesn't desire to give does not really love.

God is love. God's heart is open to you. He wants to help you and bless you with many good gifts.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17 NKJV

Perhaps you don't yet know God's personal love. You can know God today.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 NKJV

God's Answer to Confusion

 Lana Vawser. Do not doubt.
I HEARD THE LORD SAY “DON’T DOUBT WHAT I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU”

"Recently the Lord showed me that there are many in the body of Christ who have been assaulted by a very intense spirit of ‘confusion’ of late.

It has caused many to feel like they have been thrown into a ‘haze’ and clarity that the Lord had given was now suddenly feeling overshadowed by a strong feeling of ‘did God really say that?’"

https://lanavawser.com/2021/04/01/i-heard-the-lord-say-dont-doubt-what-i-have-spoken-to-you/

I have often experienced this confusion and insecurity as a Christian.

I was in a church for a while where disputes had been tearing the church apart for years. A new pastor was at the helm. He was a strong personality and could preach well, but I still felt no peace and freedom in the Spirit.

This congregation used to be strong in spirit, but through human strife, the very good pastor was pushed out. This rebellion was not from God. Little by little, everything went down the drain.

When human strife wrecks a church, demonic spirits are always behind it.

The devil has different strategies to ruin a church. It can be a rebellion against good leadership.

The enemy can also sometimes lead the leaders astray through sin, for example when pastors get involved in pornography addiction or greed for money, or become proud and want to control everything.

What do Christians experience in such churches? Often confusion and insecurity.

If you are in such a church, how can you find God's way for your life again?

Go back to Jesus! Jesus is your pastor, the Good Shepherd.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10 NKJV

Where can you find this close connection with your heavenly pastor?

• You can read your favourite passages in the Bible over and over again.

• You can seek the presence of God intensely in your private prayer time.

• You can re-read Christian books which have inspired you.

• You can spend time with good Christian friends, friends who are not in your church.

• You can attend good Christian conferences or other churches.

Maybe you are not in a church, but you feel a deep spiritual need. You need to find God, but you are disappointed with churches and many Christians.

God is still God and He is good.

What does God say in the Bible?

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jer 33:3 NIV84

What did Jesus say?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Mt 7:7–8 NASB95

God sees you as a Jewel

 The high priest in Israel wore a breastplate. On this breastplate were 12 precious stones. Each gem represented one of the tribes of Israel. This meant that the high priest had all the tribes of Israel on his heart.

Then they mounted four rows of precious stones on it. In the first row there was a ruby, a topaz and a beryl;

in the second row a turquoise, a sapphire and an emerald; Exodus 39:10–11 NIV84

Not all high priests were good men, but Jesus is now our faithful and loving high priest in heaven.

Jesus carries not only all Jews on his heart, but all people. Every person who trusts and loves Jesus is a jewel in God's heart.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15 NASB95

And the people who are lost? The atheists, Hindus and nominal Christians?

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NLT

No one is excluded from God's loving heart.

You are like a precious stone in God's eyes. You can also pray for your family and your adversaries as well. God loves your enemies too.