Finding Comfort In God

"Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
(Psalm 55:22)

"Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: and call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me."
(Psalm 50:14-15)

Finding comfort in the Lord is possible. But we have to take time for it. And the more we get in the habit of finding comfort in Him whenever we're unhappy or things don't go our way, the easier it gets. But again, we have to take time for it. We have to remember Him and come to Him.

It's not hard at all. All it takes is coming to Him with our hearts.

This morning, after spending the whole weekend with my husband and he's gone back to the usual "work-week", I just felt so bummed out. After my usual morning routine of chores and playing in my craft room for an hour, I came to my sitting room to come to the Lord. He had told me in my mind to come to Him at ten. (I have learned to commit my days to the Lord and so that He's the one that tells me what I am doing next by placing it in my heart and in my mind. Sometimes He tells me to come at noon, sometimes at ten. Yesterday He said at six because it was Sunday and church starts at ten. He then places in my heart what to do next so that I don't have to plan or worry about what chores to do or what to accomplish. There are times I let Him know ahead of time that I need to do something, like do laundry or clean my room, and He helps me accomplish them. He tells me when to wake up too. He calls my name and places in my heart to get going and not to lie around too long in bed. He's been truly gracious to me. I've been living in this complete rest for awhile now since I've learned to commit my days to Him.) Anyway, this morning, I came here to my room at ten and just couldn't have the heart to do what I'm supposed to do. At first, I was supposed to write another song, but when I tried to do it, I ended up falling asleep. When I woke up, something tells me to practice instead. So I tried. But it didn't last. I placed my guitar down and started talking to the Lord in my heart and asking, What is wrong with me, Lord? And in my spirit I knew what was wrong, I missed my husband. But I had such sorrow in my soul because of it. I felt so low. My heart did not even feel right. I felt like I'm going to cry, but then I felt like an idiot for it because how many times has he gone to work every Monday and I recover so quickly? I did not miss him as I am missing him today. Anyway, this thought came to my heart, to read my Bible instead. So I started reading it and started to feel better. Still, sorrow, sadness, just weighing my heart down, pressing me. I did the next best thing I knew, I rebuked the spirit of depression away from me and bound him; and told him May the Lord rebuke him too. I felt a little better. I read couple of more chapters of Psalms and then laid my head down on my desk and talked with the Lord. I started thanking Him for all the wonderful things He has given me in this life; my health, my house, my wonderful husband who loves me so much, and the sun that is shining to help me bear through the loneliness of not having him around again. Then I said to the Lord, "What is wrong with me, Lord?" Because I still felt so bummed out! Then He said, "You miss Evan….Love me and I will comfort you." And so I did. I started talking out loud to the Lord of how thankful I am to have Him in my life. How since I was much younger He has been there for me to see me through so many sorrows and heartaches and troubles in my life. As I thanked the Lord and loved Him for being so good and gracious to me in my life, tears started to flow, then I started to speak in tongues. I continued to worship Him and praise Him because His presence was filling my heart and soul taking my sorrows away. I sang a song to Him I had written, "Your Name Is Jesus", and loved Him and worshipped Him some more. 

And now, thank you, Jesus, that sorrow, that pang, that harrowed-ness, is gone! He is so gracious to my soul! He is so real! He is so sweet! He is so good! Oh, I love Him so much! He is so real!

Truly, if we cast our burdens upon the Lord He knows how to sustain us. 

The beautiful thing about becoming dependent on God's comfort is that He is right there the second you need Him. Because He has come to know you to depend on Him whenever you're feeling bad. And He loves that. He loves it when we come to Him for comfort. Even for the littlest and tiniest reason. And you get to learn His presence and His voice that you know it's Him, there's no worrying whether He hears you or not. You know it's Him. And that alone is such a comfort!

There is no comfort like Jesus' comfort. He truly does satisfy our needs. He said in His word He will come to us and comfort us.

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." 
(John 14:18)

I love Him so much!

Thank you, Jesus!

Do Not Forget The Lord

"They soon forgot His works, they waited not for His counsel. But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul." (Psalm 106:13-15)

We have to be careful to remember the wonderful things that the Lord has done for us and continue to look to Him for counsel. Or else, He will send leanness into our souls. Maybe that's why many of us are so unhappy these days and feel that pang and gnawing and even wretchedness in our hearts. If we do, it's time, as a saint of God to stop looking to man for counsel and salvation. It's time to turn our hearts back to the Lord and say, "Please Lord heal me, for I have sinned." As king David confessed in his psalm: For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin."

We cannot hide anything from the Lord. If we are looking to other "gods" out there in the world - meaning, other "savior"; we are greatly offending the Lord. 

"If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search this out? For He knoweth the secrets of the heart." (Psalm 44:20-21)

The best thing to do is to wait on the Lord in prayer, no matter how hopeless we feel inside. He will come and will revive us if we wait on Him.

It could be that the Lord is angry with us and has sent "leanness" upon our souls because we have forgotten Him and have turn to the intelligence and wisdom of our friends and families and society instead of waiting after Him.

And what is the intelligence of man? It doesn't matter if he's a renowned doctor or psychiatrist or surgeon or what have you - even a great prophet or "a man of God". If our hearts are turned to them instead of the Lord, we are in trouble. If we are looking for our healing and salvation to them first, when we know the Lord and has experienced His goodness to us and miracles in time past, we are in trouble. God is not a man that He should lie, neither a son of man that He should repent, what He said He will do, what He has spoken He will make it good.  If He has said we can look to Him for our salvation and that there is no other savior, then we are in trouble if we are choosing other means of salvation besides Him first. He should be the first thing we look to at all times. No matter what. He must have our hearts and full trust - not in mere man.

Man is man, he is not God, no matter how intelligent he is. God alone is our salvation. God created man, not the other way around. And God alone saved man at the cross and died for his sins. The scripture states, "the chastisement of our peace was placed upon Him and by His stripes we are healed."

It's time to look to the Lord and wait on Him for answers. Pray to Him and ask for His grace and forgiveness. Don't look to man for salvation. God may have provided man for our help, but he is not the source of help. God is. We must look to the Lord first. And wait on Him for directions.

Don't lean upon our own understanding to save our own selves. Look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Look to His word, know His word, meditate on His word, and hope in Him. And He will come!

He will come and save us because He is faithful! He is holy and there is no lie in Him. If His word said it, we can depend on it. But we must have faith in His word and we must wait on Him. 

He said He will come to those who look to Him for salvation. The Bible states, If we seek Him with our whole hearts we will find Him.

So look to Him, pray to Him, read His word, and finally, wait for Him; because He is faithful and He will save us!

Do not forget the Lord!

God Is Our Refuge

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

“Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea:

“Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.”

Psalm 46:1-3

There you go, even back in ancient times with the psalmists themselves they entertained the thought of the earth being removed and the mountains shaking and going into the sea; the waters roaring and swelling. 

Sounds like a cataclysmic event to me.

Sounds like us, doesn’t it? We imagine things like this happening to us in our time today. We even have movies going further and putting into pictures what we have not even thought of, at least I have not even thought of – like planets colliding with us – and so on and so forth, to even  immobilized us to fear.

We get our imaginations going to a point were we start thinking of a way of escape and salvation. Some people I heard dig up holes in the ground and make a bomb shelter, some stock up on food, some move up to the mountains up in the western side of America for shelter. Even my own husband had talked about moving up there too - "Just in case".

But thank God for the true answer to all these fears and dreads – God! Himself! 

Again, He is the only source of salvation.  There's no one else who is going to save us and comfort us when a cataclysmic event like we imagine happens. 

I want to be connected to Him.

It’s good to prepare for all these “calamity” I supposed. But in the end, I want God to be my salvation. I want to have peace in the process. 

And actually on that note, I don’t even want to worry about it, period. If there’s really going to be a terrible thing that’s going to happen I would like to make sure first He's going to be there for me and hear His voice. I want to know whether I live or die, He's going to be there for me. Because  can you imagine trying to save yourself when something terrible happens and you don't hear the voice of God? Or His assurances? I mean talk about fear, indeed!

Anyway, all this getting myself worked up is foolish and stressful. I do not like it at all. I’d rather have peace with the Lord. And then I’d rather pray He shows me whether I should prepare for it or not. Ha.Ha.

I remember one day I was going nuts about the “possibilities” of disasters; and you know what the Lord told me, “All is well.” Meaning, He is still in control and there’s nothing to be worrying myself about.

Oh, thank you, Jesus!

And we see that the psalmist himself had that assurance. He said, "We're not going to be afraid even if the earth is removed and the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea." Talk about confidence in God! 

Imagine the earth being removed? And mountains going into the midst of the sea? And having confidence we're going to be all right?

Well! That's how it should be! 

We should not be worrying about the "What ifs" and getting ourselves all worked up. God is in control. God will be our refuge and our strength. He will not leave us nor forsake us.

And anyway, didn't He say in the book of Matthew, not to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will take care of itself? He said, "Sufficient is the evil day thereof." 

So why do we worry? I don't know. It must be because it's the human nature to try to survive. But see, the Lord knows we want to survive. That's why He wants us to look to Him.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”