Comfort is relief from pain and agony. To those who are in pain, Jesus is your comfort. There cannot be true comfort unless there is some sort of agony. In Matt 5:4 Jesus says blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. That tells us something about the comfort that Jesus gives us. We can only be truly comforted if we mourn. There are people, many people, who are looking for the comfort of Jesus without mourning, without agony. It will never be.
It came to a time when the people of God were in great distress; when their sins drove them to captivity. When they came to their senses and mourn for their sorrows, the Lord sent his prophet to them with a message of comfort. For me, the times in which we find ourselves as congregation today does not differ from that of the Israelites.
Here is how we can obtain the comfort of God. It is specified in all the three texts of the day.
Making a straight path for the Lord
The path mentioned here refers to our lives. We must allow the Lord to straighten and smoothen our lives. Our lives are crooked in all aspects of it. There are valleys and hills in our lives. Unless those valleys are filled and the crooked straightened, there will be no comfort for us.
The Lord rebukes those he loves. We must be ready to accept the rebuke of the Lord before he can comfort us. Last week someone had a dream. In that dream it was clear that those who accept the rebuke of God will worship him better. The comfort of the Lord sometimes comes in a form of his rebuke. We cannot continue in our sin and wrongdoing, and still expect the Lord to Comfort us when those lifestyles bring trouble upon us.
For the past two weeks we have been in a certain mood in this congregation. When I read the passage I realized that God is speaking to us in particular today. Those who are genuinely mourning will surely be comforted. But those who thought that what happened was just one of those things, they are not part of this comfort.
We are all crying for the Glory of God. The Glory of the Lord does not come unless our lives are straightened and smoothened.
Repentance is key to the comfort of the Lord
We see in the third reading, and it was prophesied in the first, that the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ was preceded by that of John the Baptist. The message of John the Baptist was repentance. That was how he prepared the way for the Lord who brought comfort and healing to many. There is the call on us to repent from our old way of life – full of greed and deceit if we want to have comfort from God. We cannot continue in our fornications, our adulteries, our drunkenness, our lies, our cheating, etc. and still expect the lord to comfort us. John the Baptist is still telling us today that we must repent before this year ends. Then we can be comforted. It is not enough to cry over your sins and go back to them. Repent and you will see the glory of the Lord. If you don’t you will be a spectator when the glory of the Lord appears. The Bible says all flesh will see it – some as partakers, others as spectators.
Holiness is indispensable
The Apostle Peter puts this in a dramatic and fearful way. The comfort of the Lord is on his second coming. It will be terrible for others. For him holiness is the only thing that will make you take part in the comfort of God. 2Pet 3:11 says we must be holy people who have dedicated our lives to God. Hebrews 12:14 says without holiness no one can see God. This includes the comfort of God.
The time has come for you to receive comfort from the Lord. Prepare a way for the Lord. Make straight paths with your lives. Comfort ye my people, says your God.
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