Comfort
Today’s Scripture Selection: Isaiah 40:1
Another passage that comes immediately to mind as we think of the “Balm of Gilead” – the healing that comes from God – is this one from Isaiah:
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, and that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for her sins.”
Although this speaks to a very specific political situation in the life of Israel, it also speaks to the very nature of God’s love.
God’s tender comfort – God’s encouragement – God’s promise of rescue – comes over and over again to His people – despite their times of disobedience and wandering from Him.
It may come in some very surprising ways – as in the case of working through a king named Cyrus in a far, away land called Babylon.
And, just so, God’s mercy that brings comfort may come to us from some equally unexpected sources.
But come it does – that healing, restoring, redemptive love.
So, when you feel defeated, alone, uncertain, even abandoned – keep watch. God may be just about to do something wonderful and powerful in your life.
It’s no accident that the very next verses following this passage in Isaiah are the ones that point to a Savior who would come many years later:
“A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God…And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.’
Who knows what God has in mind, or when, or how His healing comfort may come.
Prayer: Lord, help me to level the highway in my heart, and smooth the desert places of my soul, in preparation for you. AMEN.
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