He is Our Comforter and our Un-comforter

I am always amazed at how quickly things can change. A beautiful sunny day can become a dreary wet mess in a matter of minutes. A prized possession can become garage sale destined in just a few short days. A baby can coo and mumble da da one month and then in the blink of an eye that same baby is asking to borrow the keys to your car! Yes, things certainly happen without a moments notice. I’ll never forget the day Lindsey came into the bedroom and announced “You’re gonna be a daddy!” In three seconds my life changed forever. I’ll also never forget several weeks later when the nurse looked at us through misty eyes and said, “I’m so sorry, but there is no heartbeat.” Again my life changed instantly. There are moments when God decides to alter our course. Sometimes it’s a slight modification and other times it’s a complete 180 degree turn. God allows things to turn our world upside down sometimes. Why is that? How could a loving and caring God who is supposed to have out best interest at heart take our lives and turn them on their heads? Why would he choose to make us so…….uncomfortable.

This may be hard for many of us to hear, but our comfort is not God's priority. In fact, I would argue that our discomfort, many times, is actually the greater priority. You see when we are comfortable we relax both physically and spiritually. Relaxing is something that Christians can’t afford to do. When we get comfortable in our walk with Christ, the devil starts getting excited because he knows it will only be a matter of time before areas in you life start losing their defense. We might start to think, “I am doing great….it must be because I am great. Thank you God…..for making ME so great!” and then we start dealing with pride. Or we wake up one day and wonder, “Where did God go? He was just right here a minute ago.” not realizing that in our complacency we drifted away. So we abandon our faith entirely blaming the lack of intimacy on God.

So, God will often times allow us to go through trials and discomforts so that we are consistently (and constantly it seems!!!) in the fire. He allows us to get in situations where we have no choice but to run to Him for comfort. God longs for our attention. Not because he has to have it, but simply because he is madly in love with us. God will go to incredible lengths to capture our attention. Wars have been fought, cities destroyed, children taken, loved ones snatched, all in the name of…… Grace……you see the ultimate gift is in the reward that comes after being faithful through the storms. Sometimes his gifts come in the form of taking things from us. In my own life I have often felt closest to God when nearness to him was a necessity.

When the Holy Spirit is truly living inside of you, we have all that we need to face any trial. Sometimes we even get to find out why we went through them in the first place. Have you ever been late to work because you couldn’t find your keys and you thought, “Oh God please help me find my keys!!” and then half way to work you come upon the accident that… could of ………and in your heart you know ….would of…..been you?

Sometimes we just have to understand that we don’t need to know why God allowed the trial…because it’s better for us that we don’t know. The central issue all comes down to how much we truly TRUST the one we say is in control. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. Jesus himself referred to him as such. Let me end with this question. Why would we need to experience the comforter in our lives if we are already comfortable? -Josh