daily java

Daily Java: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

There is a lot to being comforted by someone. You feel bad, you hurt in some way, and you want to offer comfort. God offers us comfort in that way. We know that he cares for us and, if nothing else, ultimately will take care of us.

Sometimes there is nothing you can do here in this world, and there may be no release from what is wrong. Your comfort comes from the fact that you know God loves you and wants the best for you.

You also know that sometimes bad stuff happens anyway, and it doesn’t matter a fig whether you want it or not.

My wife is ill with multiple sclerosis and there is nothing we can do about it. We have prayed for healing and it has not come. Yet we know God cares for us and will use us anyway.

That was the point in 2 Corinthians 12 when the apostle Paul talked about pain and suffering in a Christian’s life. To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

He knew that God loved him anyway, even when he would not give him what he wanted.

As my wife progresses in her pain and suffering, she become sweeter and more gracious. I do not know why, but she does. When she prays for healing, she hears God say the same thing he said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you.

She doesn’t like it, nor do I, but it is a fact that she is going to continue to suffer. Unless God smiles on her and decides to release her from her suffering, she will continue and get worse.

I hate it. But I love God. The pain and suffering did not come from God, but from evil in the world. And the only way God could get rid of it would be to get rid of evil, and then we would be like robots. Then we would not praise, but merely fulfill programming.

I like the choice myself. But with the choice comes the downside: the results of the choice, not only in your own life, but in the world in general.

I suppose that is why it is so hard to help a friend who is suffering who is not a Christian, who doesn’t have that internal peace in times of trouble. There is no focal point for them. All they see is the pain.

Thank you, Lord, for the grace in our lives that gives us the ability to see you through all the problems.