The Comfort Food of Our Faith!
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God.
There are days that only certain food will satisfy my hunger. Substitutions, though close in ingredients, just won’t do. The craving won’t be satisfied until the image floating before the eyes of my heart, is sitting on the table in front of me, loaded onto my spoon/fork and heading quickly to my mouth. My stomach might be satisfied with anything that hits my stomach but my soul will groan until my tastebuds officially announce the presence and pleasure because COMFORT has arrived and the pain and suffering of my craving will be replaced with joy of answered prayer. A joy so profound I will delight in sharing my comfort food with all who are in need, even when their definition of comfort food is not close to my recipe.
Enough about food… I’m beginning to “see” broccoli and cheese soup over a baked potato…
In no way am I minimizing grief and affliction! Pain and suffering is brutal to our bodies, our minds, and our souls. They cause a craving, a groaning for even the smallest relief. They make us vulnerable to the temptation to find a solution at all cost. They lie to us about our worth, our safety, and those we put our faith in. In a small way, just like a food craving, we begin to imagine (to see with the eyes of our hearts) the worst case scenarios – starvation to the point of death.
Job, who had more than his share of devastating events happen all at once, handled the worst case senario very well… for a moment…
Job 1:20-22 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
He blessed God, he fell to the ground and worshipped God, he spoke truth about God to himself and his circumstances. But as Satan persisted in asking God for proof of Job’s faith and God allowed the testing of Job’s faith, Job, sitting among the ashes (literally) in an attempt to heal his body of the boils covering him from his feet to the crown of his head, began to “see” and “feel the need” to explain what must be happening to him.
Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” Even his friends, when they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And each of them tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky. (Job 2:12)
Though Job never sinned by declaring God to be unable to care for him, nor did he turn his back on God in the midst of his grief and afflictions, he did begin to wonder and speculate about WHY ME, God.
He knew without a doubt that God was in control and could restore him in a heart beat, if He chose to.
As the testing went on past the point of Job’s tolerance for the pain and the “helpful opinions” of friends and family, he began to demand to know God’s reasons, AS IF knowing God’s reasons, would make it all ok. In other words, if Job could only understand, he could then judge God’s actions and delays as reasonable and therefore acceptable for him to suffer through.
Who of us haven’t done the same? Who of us haven’t judged God?
Job 38:1-3 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? “Now gird up your loins like a man, And I will ask you, and you instruct Me!
Here is my point… What is our comfort? God being in control or God returning us too and keeping us happy, healthy, and wise?
What do your prayers crave? Immediate and complete solutions to your perceived problems? Grief and afflictions taken away before you spend a great deal of time in the ashes with pain and suffering?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction…
He is the God of all comfort and He continually comforts us! He cannot, will not, nor do anything but comfort! God is good all the time and all the time God is good!!!!!!
Just like Job, we begin to swerve into the lane self pity and discouragement when we focus the eyes of our hearts on our cravings rather than the One Who Supplies our every need. Our pain and groaning magnifies as we put their causes under our microscope and proclaim a time and date stamp for their eradication. We begin to wonder (judge) if God is doing right by us.
And just like Job, when our eyes are refocused on the Comforter, when God shows us Himself, we can be used to share Him and His comfort with those in need… we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God.
In this world we will have suffering… As Jesus said, “Each day has enough trouble of it’s own” (Matthew 6:34)
But He didn’t say to focus on the solution to them… in fact He didn’t say it was important to seek the solutions even from God.
He said, “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33)
These things will be added to you NOT because you have done the task of seeking or that you are an excellent taskmaster.
These things will be added to you because you KNOW the Comforter and you KNOW the Comfort He gives and mostly you KNOW He cares for you with a love that is limitless.
If you don’t know this “Comfort Food” check out Psalm 139…
Psalm 139:1-6 O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
Intimate COMFORT FOOD!
Psalm 139:13-14 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.
Fearfully and wonderfully made CREATURE COMFORT!
Psalm 139:15-16 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.
Our Story, ordained FOR COMFORT, written in our Comforter’s Book
Psalm 139:17-18 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.
Pages and pages of Himself and His love, which is the comfort He DESIRES to give, and the comfort He gives to infinity and beyond .
This is The Comfort Food of Our Faith!
Enjoy to your heart’s contentment!
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.