Prior to this was the program “God of the pits”, well, this as the addendum, which is an item of additional material.
God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies grey and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage. Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life, to Your honor and glory. With every step and breath we honor Your great Name.
Augustine said, If we had never known discomfort, we would have never known comfort. If we had never known fear we would have never known faith. If we had never known sadness we would have never known joy. We know good times because we have had bad, sorrow exposes joy. Where there is pain, there is healing. Where there is mourning, there is dancing. Where there is poverty, there is the kingdom.
God does not suffer from DI-VISION, split vision, or a multiplicity of divided perception. He has singleness of eye and singleness of focus and He’s looking at us. The Lord has “vision”, not “di-vision”. In the eyes of God, His vision is never separated. He does not tell us things just so we can know, thus God does not comfort us solely to make us comfortable, but that we would learn to be comforters of others.
The word Comforter is applied to the Holy Spirit four times, John 14:16 and again in vs. 26, John 15:26, and again in John 16:7. Jesus promised His followers that The Strengthener would be with them forever. This promise is not a child’s song that gently lulls us to sleep, nor is it for those who lack fortitude … it is a blood transfusion for courageous living, and not just today, but more far reaching than we can imagine. If it is tomorrow which fills men with dread, God is there already. All the tomorrows of our life have to pass Him before they can get to us.
Jesus makes a promise of comfort and consolation to us in Matthew 11:28 saying, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
In Psalm 9:9, the LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
He does not “coddle” us, but comforts us. Consider then, coddling is different than comforting. To “coddle” means to “treat in an indulgent, excessive, or overprotective way,” and “comfort” means “to give strength and hope to, to ease grief or trouble.” It would seem that to “coddle” someone is enabling, enabling them to continue their bad behavior, whereas to “comfort” might actually involve friction by being direct with our friend. Giving strength and hope is not always a gentle, soft spoken thing.
— C.S. Lewis wrote, “God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger – according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way.”
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though we are rejected and cast down, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.