Read Psalm 86. Today we finish our month of prayer and meditation through Psalm 86 with a look at verse 17: “Send me a miraculous sign to show me how much You love me, so that those who hate me will see it and be ashamed. Don’t they know that You, Lord, are my comforter, the One who comes to help me?” (TPT). What a comfort our Lord is in all times, in all situations!
When I first ventured out into the world of writing devotions, I had not yet selected the name FearNot Ministries. I took a photo of some clouds that I had taken on a walk, and I wrote “God’s Word is Comforting” while I prayed for God’s direction regarding a name. The reason I started with “God’s Word is Comforting” is because at that period in my life, the first thing I thought of when I thought of God’s Word is the comfort I had from reading it, studying it, trusting it, living it out.
God is the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3). Jesus is the Comforter, the intercessor, the One who speaks on our behalf before God. The Holy Spirit is the Helper, the Comforter, sent by Jesus to guide us, to teach us, to convict us, etc. When feeling down, when feeling uncertain, when struggling, when anxious, when angry, when grief stricken, etc., it is a comfort to read His Word. It is a comfort to pray to Him, to worship Him, to fix our eyes on Him.
The world is fixated on self-help books and quick methods to address issues. Often it seems like the practices of the world include sticking bandaids on everything, never addressing the surface issue, but instead dealing with what can be seen or easily addressed. We are created by God and so He is the perfect person to comfort us. Jesus lived a life just as us, going through the same pains and struggles we also have in the flesh, and so He is the perfect person to comfort us. The Holy Spirit resides within all those who believe, He moves within you and through you, and so He is the perfect person to comfort us.
God alone knows what you are going through. He sees what is in your heart. He never leaves you or forsakes you— He sees and knows it all. As He designed every nook and cranny of who you are, so He is able to navigate that which is broken, sad, defeated, abused, destroyed, sickly, unkept, neglected, painful, etc., and He is able to comfort, to build, to restore, to make new. He is able to hold us in the silence. He is able to catch our tears in a bottle, and keeps each one. He is with us when we are on the high mountains and when we are in the low valleys of life. There are no bandaids— instead, the Creator and His Creation, the Father and His child. He is our great Comforter.
I pray this month has blessed you. I pray that as we worked our way through this Psalm, that you were able to draw closer to Him. May this only be the beginning of seeking Him out and resting in Him. Keep your eyes fixed on Him. You will never be without comfort.
Tania Gutekunst 