05/17/2024
"Prayer Brings Comfort" is more than just the title for this morning's devotional message, it is a declaration of the benefit that speaking with God brings. My morning reading in E.M. Bounds puts it this way... "Prayer in times of trouble brings comfort, help, hope, and blessings that, while not making the trouble disappear, enables the saint to handle it better and to submit to the will of God." If we are not careful in prayer we will simply dwell on finding relief from troubles, and miss the greater benefits. Prayer is indeed a time of seeking God's intervention and help in our distresses, but our prayers go beyond removing the discomfort, they have a deeper purpose. Prayer also reaffirms our belief, reinforces our humility before God, and communicates His will to us. Prayer does more than asking for help, it teaches us from whence that help comes.
“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”
Psalms 119:71 KJV
Looking for God in our difficulties will take instances of discomfort and turn them into blessings. There is no greater example that the passion of Christ. Jesus lived, and prayed, His final days surrounded by horrific trouble, but He suffered to complete God's will to redeem mankind. In His trouble, pain, and distress, he found obedience, and a seat at the right hand of God. Peter tell us this:
“who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”
1 Peter 3:22 ESV
As we face our troubles, what is God teaching us through them? Is it to depend on Him more, to increase our faith in His provision, to learn humility, to understand what mercy is? These are just a few of the big lessons, but God's instruction is ongoing and each classroom session includes prayer, and brings us closer to Him.
Sometimes the smallest trial can bring the biggest lesson. I remember when my daughter was no more than two or three; I stumped my toe on the coffee table and was wincing in pain. She immediately came to me and asked if I was alright "Do you have a boo-boo Daddy? Can I kiss it?" In that moment I thanked God for the tiny lesson He taught me through her caring and love. We read about such caring for others in scripture we call one of them “the mercies” but nothing ingrains the teachings of scripture in us like a practical lesson. Let’s reread the mercies…
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Matthew 25:35-36 ESV
Wouldn't it have been nice to have read a book on "How to Drive a Car" and then been able to get into the car and drive it perfectly? How long did it take you before you felt comfortable behind the wheel? How many accidents? Tickets? Sounding horns? Are you totally relaxed even now, or do you still have to concentrate on what you are doing? Our walks with God are the same; we have the textbook, but it takes a lifetime of fender benders (trouble) before we begin to feel comfortable behind the wheel of God's will. Prayer is our raised hand in the classroom of faith it allows us to ask our teacher for help and in some cases we ask Him to show us how to do it one more time.
This morning when we pray and bring our troubles to God, let's ask Him to teach us through them and to lead us in the way of His will. Then, let's have the rest of our conversation with Him... The thanksgiving, praise, and declarations of love that relationships are built upon. Prayer is indeed how we petition God's relief in times of trouble, but it is so much more than that. It is a recitation of all we have been taught… the obedience, the trust, the faith, thanksgiving and worship. Prayer is indeed the heart, soul, and embodiment of our faith, and it comforts us as we lean against our Father’s breast.
“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 may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the mercy you show us, and the comfort you give us as we pray to you. Thank you for teaching us how to be merciful to others, just as we find that you are merciful to us, and for showing us how to use our prayers to focus our relationship with you on your will, not our own. Thank you Lord for the amazing joy and comfort we receive during our times of secret prayer because by trusting in you, and your promises, we are reassured that all things will be made right and good… the hungry will be fed, our thirst will be quenched, and you will welcome us, heal us, and visit with us wherever we are; even in the darkest depths of Sheol, and the various prisons we find ourselves in. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who was, and is, and is to come. Holy are you who reaches into us as we pray, and who comforts our pain and suffering that is there. Holy are you who wraps our faith and trust in your comfort and joy as we share our thoughts and cares with you, and as we feel your will made real in us. Teach us the lessons of righteousness as we pray Father, and show us as we kneel in submission what it means to be humble, obedient, and made holy as Jesus was as He prayed in Gethsemane. Our hearts are open books before you Lord, and you know our cares and needs before we can speak them, but thank you for allowing us to come to you, and share our voices with you. It is by our speaking that we know you hear us, and are comforted in the fact that we have asked for each mercy and provision as we should. Hear us as we call to you, and ask your Holy Spirit to help us in our prayers. Hear us always as we reaffirm the power and saving grace of your Son by saying aloud that we pray in His name, Jesus. Hear our Amen and our Hallelujah as we lift you up and glorify you in all we say, and all we know that you will provide. Then, in the afterglow of having been in your presence, hear us as we grow reverently silent and become solemn in our comfort, for you have made us to feel the peace that can only be found in you.
Hallelujah, and Amen!
Rich Forbes