Integrity- People of God

God is not aloof, indifferent or coldhearted toward our pain and suffering when we lose a loved one or experience hardship. We are told to trust God and have faith in Him, but this does not minimize our grief and anguish and God listens to our cry. Jesus Himself is touched and understands our feelings because He experienced all that we have suffered and tells us to come to Him for help when we have a loss or in need.  God knew we would fall and could have chosen not to create mankind but He chose to create mankind and allowed them free will to love or reject Him.  God’s love, mercy and grace has provided another way for us to be redeemed from sin.

Acts 7:34 I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.”’

Hebrews 4:15-16 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. NKJ

God is the God of all comfort and compassion and He hears our cry for help. Sin and the enemy are the reasons we are experiencing these hard times and we must look to God and His provision to bring us out. Just as in the beginning God provided Christ as our redeemer from sin He has made provisions for us to break out of every snare the enemy has laid.

 

2 Corinthians 1: 3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.   For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.  

God knew before he formed this world that mankind would rebel and fall because of Satan and sin. God redeemed humanity at the high cost of the life of His Son Jesus. He wanted mankind to be rescued and delivered from eternal damnation even before the world began.

Death was not God’s design for mankind, though the enemy uses it against God’s creation, but God made a counter plan for eternal life and to free mankind from the traps of Satan and eternal death. 

Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. NKJ

 

Psalm 116:15-16 Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds.

God is love and full of compassion toward us and hears our cry when we are going through difficult times. He is not insensitive or a hardened father who is cold toward his children. He does not require them to suck up their pain and bear their grief without feeling, but our God and Father has come along side us to comfort us. Jesus was moved, had compassion and wept at the cries of Mary and Martha, having loss their brother Lazarus. Jesus did not weep for Lazarus because He came to raise him from the dead. Jesus wept for the living who were hurt and distressed because of their loss. God is concerned with the things that concern us. 

John 11:35-36 Jesus wept.  Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

God sees and foresees our life; He knows what we will experience and has made provisions for us to be able to come out victoriously. We are told that we will have troubles but we can take consolation and comfort in the fact that our salvation is sure.  So when we endure and persevere through these sufferings it produces hope and faith in God. After we have come through these hard situations we are able to comfort those who are also going through. What God brings us out of He gives us authority over and we can become a witness to His love and mercy and be a reflection of His glory and use this to minister to the people around us. 

2 Corinthians 1: 6- 7 Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.  And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.

God has sent the Comforter, the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us so that we are never alone. Just as God brought Israel out of Egypt and went before them by cloud during the day and fire at night, so is He with us in every situation to help, defend and protect. Israel grumbled against God and Moses called them a rebellious and stiff-necked people, ungrateful for all God had done for them. We too can choose to murmur and complain about our situations or we can trust God and the Hope we have in His love for us.

Numbers 14:1- 3 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.  And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!  Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 

Deuteronomy 31:27 For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death?

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. NKJ

Our comfort is to know we have eternal life with God the Father and Jesus His Son. The things we go through are hard and difficult. However, when we have a true knowledge of God and Jesus according to His word, we can endure and press through these experiences.

John 14:16-18 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. NKJ

Our comfort, our hope and our great expectation is in the love of God and His plan for us and that He is forever with us and will never leave us.