Daily Devotional for March 20, 2014

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort.  He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share that same comfort with others in trouble.
 
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
 
I recently attended the funeral of a friend who died suddenly at the age of 63. This man was an only child who moved to California as an adult and built a career there as a landscape architect.  I only saw him in later life on occasions when he would return to visit his mother, who has been a friend of mine since I was a little girl.  This woman is probably somewhere close to 90 now, and in failing health.  She was absolutely devastated to lose her only son, and it broke my heart to see her so distraught at the funeral.
 
I have no firsthand knowledge of the profound grief that comes from losing a child. But I’ve witnessed it firsthand…my mother, my grandmother, the mothers and fathers of dear childhood friends, and even close friends about our age whose teenage son died in a car crash.  As I hugged this woman and tried to offer her some semblance of comfort, I thought of my then-87-year-old grandmother and recalled how devastated she was when my dad passed away – also at age 63. This woman is probably about the same age as my grandmother was then.  Remembering how God sent others to minister to us in our own grief, I felt confident in reassuring her that God would comfort her, too.  I believe that God reminded me of things that comforted my own grandmother in her grief…and showed me how to offer consolation to this friend in the same manner.
 
Like most 56-year-olds, I have experienced troubles in my lifetime…but I know many people who have endured far worse – and lived to tell about it!  Over and again, I have seen how God has given comfort to those in trouble…and used them to encourage and console many who are placed in their path.  There are two things that I have taken away from my own experiences:

1. I firmly believe that God will place people in your path to whom you can offer His grace, mercy, encouragement, comfort and compassion.  OUR JOB is to be open and obedient to share out of our own life events…to demonstrate to others how God helped us…and to offer this same help to them in His name.
2. I also believe that ANYONE who calls on God for help and comfort will receive it.  You may not feel like He answers in the way you desired.  You may think that God’s timing is slow or that He has allowed you to suffer too much.  But the bottom line is that God is truly a “merciful God, who always gives us comfort”.  God will never leave you…and when you call on Him for help, He will answer.

It’s hard to see this sometimes…hard to believe that God has not deserted us. I believe this is why He calls on fellow Christians to get up and get busy encouraging and comforting others.  Out of our own understandings, we can offer firsthand, believable encouragement and compassion to others. Call it the “been there – done that” system, if you will.  People truly don’t care what you know until they know that you care.  And once they realize that you speak from the heart – and your own experiences and knowledge base – they are more apt to accept what you are sharing.
 
Take stock of your own life.  Ask God to show you where you have experienced something that could aid you in comforting or encouraging someone else.  Use your life events to offer compassion and hope to others.  “Show and tell” them what God has done in your life – and assure them that He offers these same helps and blessings to them.
 
God never wastes an experience…and we shouldn’t either!  How is he leading you to encourage or comfort someone today?  Will you answer the call?
 
©2014 Debbie Robus

Daily Devotional for December 3, 2012

Romans 8:26-28
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.

Some of you will probably find this morbid… or weird… but I like to visit the cemetery. I don’t go often, but when I do, I always feel the presence of God. The family cemetery where many of my great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even my grandfather, dad and brother are buried is a beautiful, serene place. This time of year, you can see Sugar Loaf Mountain through the trees. You can hear geese and ducks on Magness Lake, and cattle graze in the adjacent pasture. I have been to this cemetery on bitterly cold days, and days when it was beastly hot. I’ve stood there in downpours and a chilling drizzle. And Saturday when I visited, the weather was sunny, breezy, and unseasonably warm for December 1st.

Can I be real with you? The last few days, I have truly not known what to pray… for a variety of reasons. We all have these times in our life… times when the words will not come… when we cannot collect our thoughts into something that makes sense. So when I visited the cemetery on Saturday to place flowers on several graves, I spent some time just sitting very quietly… looking at the beauty around me… and listening for God. I have to tell you, I left there feeling like I really didn’t hear much in return… until today.

When I read this passage, it was as if God said, “I heard your groanings. I un-jumbled your thoughts. I know what you were thinking and feeling… I felt your wordless sighs…and I’m on it!” I cannot tell you how much better this made me feel. I get it that God understands our thoughts even when we can’t express them… but when you hit a “dry spell” for several days where you feel like your prayers don’t make a lick of sense, it can be a little unsettling. I find myself thinking, “I have so many things I want to place before God… why can’t I articulate them?” THIS is when God’s spirit lifts us and carries the load. THIS is when He hears and interprets what makes no sense… even to us! THIS is great news and should bring us tremendous comfort!

I don’t know what is happening in your life today… finals, health issues, job challenges, family dynamics, loss of some kind – or even the stress of the holidays and more. But I do know this… if you will sit quietly and just “be” for a while, God will hear your inner groans and sighs. If you will remain faithful and simply come before His presence, God will unscramble your thoughts and make sense of them… and He will work things out for you according to His perfect will.

You don’t have to go to a cemetery, a church, or even a quiet room to do be in God’s presence. You can accomplish this at your desk, in your car, or wherever you find yourself. All you have to do is sit still and say, “Here I am, LORD.” He will do the rest. Aren’t you tired of waiting? Aren’t you ready for God to help you along? Isn’t this a great time to begin?

©2012 Debbie Robus