Through God's Love

 

 

2 Corinthians 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.”

 “I’ve prayed and asked God to help me because I don’t know what to do.”

Many of us know of a friend or family member that needs advice or comfort in their time of trouble. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tells us that God is the Source of all comfort. He is the One that covers our entire being in His peace, and He comforts us like no other. When we have been strengthened by His wonderful comfort in our times of trouble, He makes it clear in this passage that we have the privilege and responsibility to pass it on.

Not long ago, I bumped into Sharon, someone that I used to work with and hadn’t seen in a long-time. She asked me how I was doing, and I immediately did the same. Without hesitation she began to share with me the details of some trouble in her life. It’s a situation involving her relationship with her ex-husband and her current boyfriend. Six years ago, after twenty-something years of marriage and two children, Sharon decided to file for divorce. She and her husband maintained an amicable relationship after the divorce. She remained single for a few years and concentrated on the kids, but a chance meeting with her high school sweetheart stirred up old feelings, and they began dating two years ago.

Sharon’s ex-husband never gave up hope that one day they’d find a way to re-unite. Faced with her husband’s desire to re-marry, she said, “He’s a good provider. He’s the father of my children and my family loves him. I’ll always have feelings for my ex-husband, but I love my boyfriend. I don’t want to hurt anyone, and I want to make a good decision.” Whenever you’re ambivalent and facing an important life decision like this, it’s a sure sign to turn to God and wait on Him.

We’ve been schooled by society that we should always trust our hearts, that the heart wants what the heart wants, and it will never steer us wrong. This is the opposite of what God’s Word tells us in Jeremiah 17:9(NLT). It says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” This verse allows us to understand clearly that none of us know our hearts as well as we think. God, however, knows every detail about us. There isn’t a nook or cranny within our being that is hidden from His eyes. He knows us intimately, and He knows us far better than we know ourselves. He also knows what is best for our lives.

He tells us in Revelation 1:8(NLT), “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” God knows the beginning at the end, and He knows the end at the beginning. He knows our futures. Therefore, He knows everything about the people in our lives and how these individuals will ultimately impact our well-being.

We can’t see our way clearly, and this is why Jesus Christ commanded us in Matthew 6:33 to always seek God first in all we attempt to do. Heavenly Father is righteous, and He will always steer us in the direction of His perfect Will. God also commands us in Proverbs 3:5 to trust in Him with all our hearts. He tells us not to lean on our own understanding. In other words, we shouldn’t lean solely on our hearts for direction about important decisions in life. We must lean on God and His guidance, because He is the only One that can tell us the right way to go.

Sharon’s husband had been as good to his family as he knew to be. He had sacrificed and provided for them and was willing to continue doing so. But she had gotten bored in their marriage, and no longer loved him the way she once had. She views love chiefly as an emotion and not as the commitment and decision that God has informed us it is meant to be.

Love is pure yumminess. We all crave it in some way, and it is very easy to become hooked on the feeling, but loving God’s way is so much more than this. Knowing and trusting God is love and every other good thing and every other kind of love is birthed from loving Him. Romans 8:28(KJV) declares, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” The knowledge of this verse should be the basis for how we extend God’s comfort to others. God is the One that causes all things to work together for our good, and the condition for this is simply that we love Him with all our hearts and minds.

Philippians 2:13(NLT) tells us, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” Loving God by living according to the example of Christ is the solution to all life’s problems. It gives us the strength and the desire to do what pleases Him. Doing what pleases God always ends in our success, because there is no greater remedy or joy than loving God through Christ. There is no greater plan for us than learning more about His love and applying it to every aspect of our lives. This cancels all ambivalence and realigns us totally with God’s Will. Our faith in God sets it all in motion.

It’s no question that we all go through seasons in our lives where we experience pain, suffering or ambivalence about what direction we should take. As we trust God and receive His comfort and healing, we are strengthened. We can then comfort others. We can do this with confidence that He has given us authority through His love to pour out love, grace, and comfort to others. Our message should then be clear, when we don’t know what to do, trust God. This is the direction that all believers should point those in discomfort. We should pray for them and encourage them to pray for God’s guidance and most especially, we should all pray that He will teach and help us to love greater through Christ.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Through God's Love”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.