FINDING COMFORT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

Isaiah 40:1-2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

My father passed away the year before I retired from the Navy. He had always been one of my greatest supporters through life and I had hoped he would see me cross the finish line after a long military career but instead, it was he who crossed the finish line first after suffering a severe stroke which left him a shell of his former self.

It wasn’t easy losing him as you can imagine. It never is when you lose a parent but I will say that overriding my sense of grief was an overwhelming sense of comfort and peace. You see, my father was a Christian and so when he crossed the finish line after running the good race and fighting the good fight (2 Timothy 4:7), he wasn’t done running. No, he continued to run right into the arms of the Savior who promised him that life would not end with death but instead continue for all eternity. Whatever sins he had committed were in the past, the consequences he had paid were satisfied, and he was (and is) free from all that afflicted him, free from hardship and sickness and transgression. He entered into the blessed assurance of everlasting life through the Jesus he lived for and worshipped.

As I went north to Pennsylvania for the funeral, all was well with me. I had found a comfort that only the Lord could bring me when I needed it most. Dad may have departed from this earthly life but he was far from gone. Rather, he had entered into a place of perfect peace, a place where he would be restored and renewed, his damaged body repaired as he set up residence with the Lord. To yearn for him to not be gone would be akin to me wishing he was still there suffering from the irreversible damage the stroke caused. Out of love for him, I would never want his suffering to continue any longer than the Lord willed it to.

So I let go, trusting that God had Dad in His hands and there was no better place he could be. Departed from this worldly life, he was with his Maker and Creator, his Redeemer and Friend, His Savior and Sustainer. How could I be anything but happy for him?

And so I was. I was happy that he was no longer trapped within his damaged body and free to be with the Lord forever. What an amazing comfort that was for me! I also started to recall all the great times we had together and that led me to a lot of smiles and feelings of joy as I realized just how blessed I was to have a father and have him as long as I did in my life. My sorrows subsided and a funeral turned into a celebration of life, the life he lived and the life we shared.

As we look at the opening verses of one of the best chapters in Isaiah, Chapter 40, we find the word of God speaking words that exhort us to be comforted, to experience the calm and pleasing reassurance that in life and death, everything is going to be fine when we know and trust in the Lord for salvation. Look at these words:

Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. Isaiah 40:1-2

These words, believed to be written at the tail end of the Israelite captivity in Babylon, had to bring great consolation to God’s people. They had paid the price for their wicked disregard and disrespect for the God who made them and delivered them time and time again in times of trouble. The penalty was paid and hard service completed. Soon it would be time to return home, not just home to Jerusalem, but home eternally, liberated and blameless before their heavenly Father.

Friends, we have a blessed assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ, God’s only son, the One He sent to save us, the One who has already conquered death and the grave. With this, life for those who place their faith and hope in Him does not end at death but rather only begins.

Because of Jesus, death has no sting and the grave will not be able to hold any Christian. Let us ever find comfort in that wonderful truth and give thanks.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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