Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video from the group Phillips, Craig, and Dean, singing their song … He’ll Do Whatever It Takes … poignantly singing of care and comfort we need to overcome the worst our world or our flesh can bring in the way of pain or anguish in our lives.
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Highlight Verse[s]: 2Corinthians 1:3-4[NLT] … 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.
…We need to be comforted knowing that God is our comforter.
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Highlight Passage [context]: 2Corinthians 1:3-7 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God give us His comfort in our times of trial.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … Job 2:11-13 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… In Job’s time of anguish and pain, he had three friends who came to grieve with him with the touch of comfort. And all was good until they started opening their mouths.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … John 14:15-21 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus promised His disciples (and us) His “Comforter” (i.e., Advocate or Paraclete) to be with us and in us when we’re confronted by our Spiritual enemies.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … 1Peter 5:7 [NLT] … 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
… When we’re worried, we can give them to our God … Who cares for us.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Randy Kilgore, related a story of a caring nurse’s assistant who provided a touch of comfort in a patient’s time of trial. The ODB author wrote: “Patient is combative,” the nurse’s notes read.
What she didn’t realize until later was that I was having an allergic reaction as I awakened after a complicated open-heart surgery. I was a mess, with a tube down my throat. My body began shaking violently, straining against the straps on my arms, which were there to keep me from suddenly pulling out my breathing tube. It was a frightening and painful episode. At one point, a nurse’s assistant to the right side of my bed reached down and simply held my hand. It was an unexpected move, and it struck me as especially gentle. I began to relax, which caused my body to stop shaking so badly.
Having experienced this with other patients, the nurse’s assistant knew that a hand of comfort could minister to me as well. It was a vivid example of how God uses comfort when His children suffer.
There are times of trial and anguish in our lives when we need a touch of comfort to help us grieve or deal with pain. Job certainly had such a time, didn’t he? And at least for a time after he lost everything and was in dire pain, three friends came to just be with him, giving Job God’s mercy/grace of comfort (see Job 2:11-13).
And I would hope that we all have brothers/sisters in Christ who would bring the comfort of the One Jesus promised He would send to comfort us (see John 14:15-21). Yes, dear one, … our God cares for us and desires to be our “Comforter” when we’re in anguish (see 1Peter 5:7).
Oh, even when He seems so far away, my friend, … He’s there … ALWAYS there! But the question for us from these thoughts is … do we believe He’s there to comfort us. Because if we do, His comfort will be ours, even in our worst times of trial and pain.
And PS … Many today are trying to extract our “Comforter” from our world or trying to explain Him away with New Age mysticism. But, as Priscilla Shirer, the star of the Movie War Room proclaims, “Even Oprah cannot explain away our God!” [SEE THIS LINK] He is our Abba Father, our King Jesus, and our Comforter and He’s always there for us.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … I feel Your presence and Your power today. Thank You for Your comforting touch. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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