It has been said, "The best place to be when you are sad is in Mommy’s and Daddy’s lap."

I am sure you agree that this is good advice for a child. There is no place for comfort that compares with the lap of a loving parent. What about when you grow older and no longer fit in their lap?

Where do you go for comfort?

I am not talking about the kind of comfort you get when a loved one fluffs up your pillow. I am not talking about the kind of comfort you get curled up in the corner of the couch with a good book.

I am talking about finding a calm in the midst of one of life’s storms. When you need relief from a painful situation. When your seeking encouragement when life seems to be one failure or disappointment after another. When you want to feel satisfied in a world that tells you, "you can’t be". When you are in need of a consoling word or a loving embrace. Where do you go for comfort?

Isaiah said,
"Comfort, O comfort my people says the Lord."

Where do you and I find this comfort?

The answer is simple, In the arm’s of God. Surprised? What is surprising is how many people know the answer, STILL they seek alternatives.

If you have been reading the prophesy of Isaiah this month, you know have much Judah is in need of comfort. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah, have been nothing but doom and gloom. There has been a splattering of hope here and there, but, I would guess 90% of those first 39 chapters spoke about the forth coming judgment of God, which would destroy not just Judah, but Israel, and all the nations of the world. The reason for this judgment is that the sins of the world were like a slap in the face to God. Like God had done at the time of Noah, God was planning to destroy sin and save a remnant of faithful people. Chapters 1 through 39 warn us that God’s judgment is not just going to be a slap on the wrist. He was attacking sin with all of His might. No one would be able to hide from God’s justice.

What I find intriguing is that when some people read about all the doom and gloom in the book of Isaiah, God seems to come out as the bad guy. We question, if God is a loving God, why would he do such a thing. We seem to forget about all the warning the people were given. We seem to forget about all the passionate appeals, to be faithful to God. We seem to overlook God’s petitions to obey.

I also find it intriguing, that when we do admit, that the nation of Judah and Israel are getting what they deserve, we don’t realize that we have not learned from their mistakes. That we are walking down the same road they traveled.

They sought comfort in wealth, in possessions, in sexual gratification, in making alliances with other nations, in compromising God’s Word. They took great comfort in looking at what they had accumulated and accomplished and patting themselves on the back.

It has to be painful for God to watch modern society and realize that we just don’t get it.

Like the Israelites we seek comfort in temporal things. Drive down any neighborhood. You will find driveways filled with nice cars, boats, campers, homes furnished with satellite dishes, entertainment centers, modern appliances, the latest of everything.

We seek comfort in alcohol and legal and illegal drugs. Every night this scene is played out in too many homes. A man or woman comes home from work, walks in the door and says, ‘I need a drink.’ S/he is not an alcoholic, they just need a drink to take the edge off their day. In every town there is a pharmacist filling another prescription for valium, for the same reason there is someone buying illegal drugs on the street corner, to find comfort.

We seek comfort by avoiding the truth, by trying to cover up. We are all too painfully aware how well that works. The past 9 months has shown us as a nation the results of those tactics. Yet seeking comfort by hiding from the truth is not something new. Adam and Eve did it in the garden of Eden. After they had disobeyed God they tried to hide from God when they heard God coming. King David when he learned that Bathsheba was pregnant with his child, while she was married to Uriah, made a plan to have Uriah return from battle to his wife, so they could have sexual relations and the truth of David’s and Bathsheba’s affair could be hidden. When that didn’t work he had Uriah killed in battle.

"Comfort, O comfort my people, says the Lord."

Where do you turn for comfort?

The first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism, one of our confessional creeds, asks this very question:

"What is your only comfort in life and in death?"

"That I belong-body and soul, in life and in death- not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of His own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that He protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed that everything must fit His purpose for my salvation."

The comfort Isaiah was proclaiming to the Israelites is no different.

"See the Lord God comes with might, and His arm rules for Him; His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.

He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep." (vs.10,11)

We know this God, this shepherd, He is Jesus Christ. We know that there will times when Jesus will lead us and there will times when Jesus will carry us. If you are looking for the meaning of comfort, you find it in the person of Jesus Christ.

Your comfort and mine, comes from relying on God’s caring strength. As an unknown poet wrote:

God has not promised skies always blue

Flower strewn pathways all our lives through

God has not promised sun without rain

Day without sorrow, peace without pain.

God has promised strength for the day,

Rest for the labor, light for the way,

Grace for the trials, help from above,

Unfailing sympathy - undying love.

"Comfort, O comfort my people says the Lord."

Your comfort and mine is in the arms of God, is in being nearer to the heart of God. If your are seeking comfort today, use this time to invite Jesus into your heart. The Lord says, "Behold I stand at the door, the door of your life, and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, whoever opens their heart, their life, I will come in to that person and dine with that person." (Rev.3:20)

It is your choice, to open the door or not; to be embraced by the comforting presence of God or not.

Amen

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