Imagine you’ve had a hard day. Maybe your coffee spilled all over in the car on your way to work. Maybe your professor handed back your graded assignment and you totally bombed it. Maybe you made a mistake at work. Maybe you just aren’t feeling really well. Whatever happened, it was a hard a hard day. Now, it’s the end of the day. Maybe your on your drive home or you just got home and you are figuring out what to do next. What do you turn to for comfort after that difficult day? Do you go through Starbucks to get your favorite coffee order? Do you go to the gym and let out all your frustration? Do you curl up on the couch and put on your favorite show? Do you go straight to your bed and scroll on TikTok? Do you call your friend and rant about everything that went wrong today? We all have something we like to turn to for comfort. We don’t like sitting in our comfort and look for anything that can ease the hurt, our tiredness, our anger, etc. And let me say first, I am not saying that these are always bad things. But here is my question: did you seek The Comforter first? All these other things are band aid fixes. They might help you feel good in the moment but are they actually helping you feel better and process or is it just a distraction?
I’ve recently began serving in the Youth Ministry at my church and we are currently going through a series called “Thrones”. I thought about my own life as we listened to these sermons and I asked myself what have I been putting on the throne of my life? Is Jesus actually on my throne? I think we have to continuously evaluate this in our lives. It can be easy to take one thing off the throne but then without realizing it, throw another thing back up there. It’s where daily surrender to Jesus comes into play.
But when I thought about what was on the throne of my life right now, I thought of the word comfort. I like comfort. Don’t we all? We hate feeling pain, hurt, anger, etc, any kind of discomfort. So what do we do? We look for a way to get rid of it. But here is what I was reminded of from Scripture:
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” – James 1:2-4
“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.” – Psalms 23:4
“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubles, we will be able to them the same comfort God has given us.” – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
God is The Comforter. He invites us to come to Him first and foremost. He will give to us exactly what we need, even if he doesn’t take the discomfort away immediately. He hears us and His presence is with us always. Seeking these worldly things first when we seek comfort will not bring us closer to our relationship with Jesus. Speaking for my own life, I’ve found that they actually invite distraction instead of comfort. I say, “Oh I’ll just do this one thing and then I’ll bring it to God”. But do I actually do that? If I’m being honest, not always. So my encouragement to all of us is to simply ask ourselves the question I mentioned earlier. Did I seek The Comforter first? Think about that in your own life and how you can intentionally choose him first in those moments of discomfort. Friends, the Lord wants to hear from you. Let him comfort and guide you.
Prayer:
Father,
I thank you first and foremost for being The Comforter. I thank you for the space you give me to come to you. And I thank you for your constant presence in my life, that I can come to you at any time. Lord, I’m sorry for the times that I choose other things to comfort me over coming to you first. Help me to recognize the things in my life that I choose to go to first over you. I admit that sometimes I put comfort on the throne of my life. Help remind me that even in these times of discomfort, endurance is being built. Thank you for sitting in the discomfort with me. Thank you for being my Comforter. Lord, I lay all of these things down at your feet today.
And it’s in Jesus mighty name I pray,
Amen.
Abundant Joy 