To Encourage You

Isaiah 49:13 “Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.”

Joy: it’s one of the most wonderful aspects of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5).  If we are God’s children, we have joy because God has given it to us.  The moment we enter the kingdom, joy comes from the kingdom to us. It’s an awesome and glorious thing.  Yet, as we continue on our walk with the Lord, not everything that comes into our lives is joyful. Some things are very hard. Trials are inevitable.  Jesus told us we would have them, and that one of the reasons we would have them was just because of the fact that He had them before us.  He told us that “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matthew 10:24).  

You see, Beelzebul is just one of the many terms the Bible uses to describe Satan.   Many of the most religious people of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees and Sadducees, actually thought Jesus was demonic.  They looked at spiritual perfection and they were so blind that they only saw evil.  Likewise, people will call us who follow Christ “evil” as well.  But not only do we experience trials of this type, like Jesus, the devil will come after us personally as well.  Look at Job and consider his life.  The trials came to him in waves – one horrible thing after another.  Yet, in all of this, God was at work in His life and, in the end, Job was comforted, and we are told that the end of his life was better than the beginning. 

God not only has warned all believers that trials would come to them, but He has also told us that we can rejoice in them.  He has told us to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).  As the verse above from Isaiah 49 tells us, “the Lord has comforted his people.”  And as we look back over our lives since the time we came into God’s family, we know that the testing of our faith has produced steadfastness. 

Nevertheless, although we know this and have experienced it, how often the next trial seems to be different.  How often we meet trials that aren’t like any others we’ve ever faced before, and we are tempted at those times to doubt and fear. It is at such times that we can be rattled, and our joy can begin to slip.  But it is at such times that God would have us to both look back, to remember that in our past trials He has comforted us,and to then look to the promises of His word about the future. Surely if He has always been faithful, just as He said, He will always be faithful, just as He has promised.

In the words of Isaiah above, just as “the Lord has comforted his people” in the past, He “will have compassion on the afflicted” in the future.  And although this new trial may be something very new to you, God would have us to know that “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (I Corinthians 10:13).

What a wonderful promise this is. It’s one I’ve clung to by my fingernails in the darkest times in my life.  And you know what? God did provide a way through and God did enable me to endure those times.  And He’ll surely do the same for you, including at this present time if you happen to be one who is in the midst of such a trial.  Hold on to Him. Hold on to His promises, for the One Who has comforted you in the past will show mercy and love to you again.  It’s His promise, and He is the One being in all the universe that cannot lie (Titus 1:2).