Comfort can grow in adversity!
When life seems like it’s falling apart, ask God for comfort.
He provides the peace and clarity needed to help you through difficult times.
He will be with you and give you the comfort, strength, and faith you need to keep moving.
Even though you can’t escape adversity or suffering, you can take comfort in knowing that someday you’ll be with God.
Take comfort and encouragement from His Word, His presence, and His people.
“Comfort, oh comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem, but also make it very clear that she has served her sentence, that her sin is taken care of – forgiven! She’s been punished enough and more than enough, now it’s over and done with.” Isaiah 40:1-3 MSG
Our most common tactic for comforting the suffering is to talk about the future, even when we don’t know anything about it.
We say, “Things will get better soon; don’t worry.”
However, God says something different about our future.
You’re not waiting for it. It’s already here! Right here in the present.
He has us preparing the way for him in our present wilderness or circumstances.
It’s not our job to design an elaborate fantasy life about God’s future.
Instead, our job is to trust God’s plan for our lives and be open to his blessings and provisions.
We can choose to live life to the fullest, trusting that God is in control.
We can be confident that no matter the outcome, God will always be with us.
In the desert, prepare the way of the Lord. Right here where the going is roughest.
Isaiah 40:3-5 emphasizes the current environment they were in.
“Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!” Isaiah 40:3-5 NLT
Exactly here, in this very dry, colorless, arid existence of the sufferer, is where the highway of God is to be built.
This highway is to be built through the valleys, mountains, and hills of our lives and through the curves and rough places of our emotions.
It is to be built through the valleys of pain and sorrow and through the mountains and hills of hope and joy.
It is to be built through the curves and rough places of our faith and through the valleys of doubt and fear.
Trying to eject yourself from where you are just doesn’t work!
It won’t get you anywhere!
Instead, construct a highway, which takes time.
Build it well. And build it where you are.