Consolation, Part 3

We now come to step three that our Lord gave us to experience the consolation that is in Him: Learning of Him. Many of our distresses and sorrows are lightened as we learn of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever felt drained only to be revived when you heard a good gospel sermon and learned something about your Lord? If so, then you have received of the consolation that is in Christ. As we learn of Christ, we learn of One Who is meek and lowly in heart. Many of our heavy burdens arise from our own pride and rebellion, which are the opposite of meekness and lowliness. If we would learn of Christ to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand and submit to His will, we would see many unnecessary burdens fall away. I know that some of my heaviest burdens arise from the fact that I am not accepting something God is permitting in my life, something I cannot change or control. But when I humble myself and accept what God has allowed, I discover a sense of relief as well as a supply of grace to bear it.

James 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7  Submit yourselves therefore to God.

There is so much consolation to be found in learning of Christ as He is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. The following passage speaks to our point:

Psalms 119:49  Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
50  This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.

The word of God comforts us in our affliction because it quickens us, that is, it revives and restores vigour to us. When we are invigourated, the affliction we bear is lightened because we have more energy with which to bear it.

Observe how this passage links the comfort of the word of God with the hope it proclaims. When, in the troubles of life, you flee for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that God’s word sets before you, then you find a “strong consolation.” This hope offers a strong consolation because it rests upon the promise of God backed up by His oath, and it is impossible for God to lie when He makes a promise and when He swears to it.

Hebrews 6:17  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
20  Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus….

We believers draw strength from knowing that something far better is waiting for us beyond this world of sorrows. Knowing we have a sure hope set before us in heaven alleviates the sorrows we bear down here. In fact, this greatly lightens our load because it is a “strong" consolation. Observe how it works in the following passage:

2 Corinthians 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

As we focus on the hope that is set before us in glory, our present afflictions seem light and momentary in comparison. You see, this hope provides us with a strong consolation which lightens the load of the present affliction. Remember, to console is to alleviate the sorrow, to lighten the load. The stronger the consolation is, the greater is the relief it brings.

How sad it is to see multitudes set all their hopes in this fleeting world. They rely on the things that they can accumulate and experience down here to alleviate their sorrows. Speaking of them our Lord said:

Luke 6:24  But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

There can be no doubt that riches can lighten a lot of loads that we bear. They can get bill-collectors off our back. They can buy us vacations to relaxing resorts. They can purchase narcotics and sedatives that give us some ease. But when all the relief one has is the relief that money can buy, that is a pitiful situation indeed! The relief the wicked rich receive in this world is all the relief they will ever have.

But for those who flee for refuge to the hope that is in Christ, they find in this life a strong consolation that is not confined to this world. Mark these wonderful words:

2 Thessalonians 2:16  Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
17  Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

The Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father not only give us strong consolation now to alleviate our sorrows, but they give us “everlasting” consolation. This consolation reaches beyond this world to the next. I like to think of heaven as a place where I will experience unmingled, never-ending relief. The burdens of the present world will be forever removed. Next time you feel your load lighten when you come to Jesus, just imagine that feeling being enlarged to fill eternity. Imagine feeling forever light, energetic, and free! No more will we feel heavy, weighed down, oppressed, and sorrowful. Of course, we cannot fully imagine it. But it sure is consoling to think about and being consoled by that thought makes our present burdens lighter.

Consolation, Part 2

In our last meditation we began considering the steps recommended by our Lord to experience the consolation that is in Him. These steps are found in Matthew 11:28-30. The first step is simply to come to Him. We need to bring to Him whatever weights us down and drains our energy. That old song we love says it so well:

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!

Secondly, we experience consolation by taking Christ’s yoke upon us. This involves submitting to His will and control. When you yoke a horse or an ox, it is for the purpose of steering the beast where you want him to go to do what you want. Yoking is not about doing the will of the beast. It is about doing your will. Now apply this to the Lord Jesus Christ and His yoke for us. Wearing His yoke is about His will, now ours. Anxiety makes any affliction much more difficult to bear and a great deal of our anxiety arises from our will. We want the Lord to do what we want when we want. We want Him to wear our yoke so we can direct Him where we want Him to go. Well, I have news for you. Nobody but nobody steers Almighty God. You might as well get that settled right now.

Isaiah 40:13  Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?
14  With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?

Our attempt to drive God only creates frustration and an unbearable burden. When we take His yoke upon us, submitting to Him and His way, even though we can’t understand it, we get relief. As He said, “ye shall find rest unto your souls.” We can rest in the assurance that nothing can separate us from His love and that, therefore, He has our best interests at heart and will do right by us in life and in death. Ceding the control of our lives to Christ we then draw on the consolation in Him.

Judy Masching, a member of our congregation, sent this quote that fits nicely with what I am saying: "When we reduce (adjust) our expectations, we will also reduce (adjust) our frustrations." Adjusting our expectations to what God has promised rather than to the fulfillment of our wills, reduces much of our frustration, which in turn conserves our energy.

Furthermore, relief comes in bearing His yoke. We need to exchange the requirements that we and others place upon us for the requirements that He places upon us. The early churches were plagued with the error of the Pharisees, who had believed, but who taught the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. There was a council of the apostles and elders held at Jerusalem to consider this issue and it was decided that no such burden should be placed upon the Gentiles. Observe how Peter described this burden that the Pharisees were placing upon the Gentile converts:

Acts 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
11  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

This was a yoke that the Pharisees, not Jesus, were placing upon these disciples. Read the conclusion of the council in this passage:

Acts 15:24  Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
25  It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
26  Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
27  We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
28  For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
30  So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:
31  Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.

Observe that when this unnecessary burden that the Pharisees had placed on the Gentiles was lifted, “they rejoiced for the consolation.” You see, they exchanged the heavy yoke that men had placed upon them, for the easy and light yoke of Jesus. Hence, their load was lightened, that is, they were consoled. This is the consolation in Christ.

We load so much on ourselves and we let others load so much on us that our Lord never required. Step back from your burden and ask yourself this question:

Deuteronomy 10:12  …what doth the LORD thy God require of thee?

Let the Scriptures of truth answer that question. Do what the Lord requires of you and you will do well. It does not matter what others think of you so long as He approves of you. And the burdens the Lord places upon us are easy and light. They don’t drain us like the burdens of men. It is amazing how much time and energy we spend trying to secure and maintain the good opinion of others. We become like Martha, “careful and troubled about many things.” We neglect that “one thing needful,” which is to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of Him (Luke 10:38-42). And technology does not make this any easier. Today we can contact more people, more quickly and easily than ever, which in turn causes us to feel responsible to contact more people about more things and it also causes more people to expect us to contact them and respond to them. On and on the burdens multiply. But what does the Lord require? That is the all-important concern. Learning and applying the answer to that question will remove a lot of burdens from you. And this brings us to step three: Learning of Him. God willing, we will deal with that next time.

Consolation, Part 1

Today I was writing a report to our congregation regarding a couple of our members who are ill. As I did so, my thoughts were stirred regarding the subject of consolation. Let’s begin with noting the words of our beloved apostle Paul.

Philippians 2:1  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ….

Of course, there is no doubt that there is consolation in Christ. But the sad thing is that we are not always drawing on it. Therefore, Paul introduced his sentence with the hypothetical word if.

True to form, let’s define some terms. Consolation is the act of consoling. This definition requires that we define console.

Console - To comfort in mental distress or depression; to alleviate the sorrow of (any one); to free from the sense of misery.

To console is to comfort, to alleviate.

Comfort – To strengthen (morally or spiritually); to encourage, hearten, inspirit, incite. To lend support or countenance to; to support, assist, aid.

Alleviate – To make lighter, diminish the weight of. To lighten, or render more tolerable, or endurable; to relieve, mitigate.

By definition, it is the function of consolation to comfort, to impart strength. Consolation comforts by alleviating sorrow. It does not make the sorrow go away, but it lightens the sorrow and makes it more bearable. It provides relief. When sorrow is lightened, it reduces the drain on our energy and thus conserves our strength. One has more strength when less strength is being demanded.

We can see consolation at work in the following passage.

2 Corinthians 7:5  For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
6  Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;
7  And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.

Observe that Titus was comforted by consolation and that Paul was also “comforted by the consolation wherewith” Titus was comforted. Paul was troubled on every side. There were fightings without and fears within. His conflicts were to the point that his “flesh had no rest.” There was no letup. The pressure was constant. And then came Titus with good news about the Corinthians. In his first epistle to the Corinthians Paul had issued some stern rebukes to them. Paul was very concerned about how they had received his epistle. Now Titus came with the news that the Corinthians had received Paul’s rebuke very well. What a relief! This was one worry that was lifted off of Paul. This in turn made his remaining conflicts more bearable. You see, his sorrow was alleviated. He was strengthened by the lightening of the load. He had experienced consolation. Surely you have experienced the consolation that comes when you get a piece of good news amidst all the bad.

Now there is consolation in Christ to relieve us when we struggle beneath heavy burdens that drain our strength. This is evident in these familiar words of our Lord:

Matthew 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Observe the contrast between being “heavy laden” and having a burden that “is light.” It requires a lot less energy to bear a light burden than a heavy one. To have our burden lightened is to experience consolation by definition. This is the consolation that is in Christ! In this passage our Lord teaches us how we can draw on this consolation. It is by coming to him, taking His yoke upon us, and learning of Him. Now let’s examine each of these steps toward experiencing consolation.

First, we experience consolation by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you find your burdens are becoming harder and harder to bear, just bring them to Jesus. As the old spiritual puts it: “Tell Him all about your troubles.” You will tap into God’s strength just by casting your burden upon Him

Psalms 55:22  Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee.

In case you don’t know this, sustain means to support. It really does help to pray. I can’t tell you the times that “a little talk with Jesus” has helped to put my troubles into perspective and to make them easier to bear. Our problem is that we try to sort it all out and solve it on our own without Him.

This is growing so I will stop here for today and continue this later, God willing. It is my sincere desire that you will find some consolation in reading this.

The Main Thing

As I have noted before, I receive a daily devotional from a pastor friend of mine, Larry Lilly. As I read today’s letter, I was struck by this quotation: “Keeping the main thing, the main thing, is the main thing.” In support of this thought, Pastor Lilly cited the words of our Lord to Joseph and Mary, when He was but a lad of twelve years old.

Luke 2:49  And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?

Joseph and Mary together with the child Jesus had gone up to Jerusalem to keep the annual Passover. When Joseph and Mary returned home, Jesus stayed behind. Joseph and Mary assumed Jesus was among the kinsfolk and acquaintance. Being about a day into the return trip, Joseph and Mary sought Jesus and could not find Him. They then went back to Jerusalem and after three days found Him in the temple engaged in questions and answers with the doctors of the law, who were astonished at our young Lord’s understanding and answers. The above passage is our Lord’s response to His mother’s inquiry when she found Him.

Luke 2:48  And when they (Joseph and Mary) saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

When Joseph and Mary found Jesus, He was in the temple dealing with the matters of the law, which would have been the topic of discussion in the temple. He was busying Himself in matters of doctrine. This He called “my Father’s business.” It is obvious that He attached a greater priority to this than to the sorrow of Joseph and Mary. They should have understood that He had to be about His Father’s business. Jesus was not lost. He was right where He belonged.

Now the thing that leaps out at me in this passage is that our Lord attached more importance to His Father’s business than to the concern and feelings of Joseph and Mary for Him. For Him, the Father’s business was the main thing. He would not allow the concerns and emotions of His earthly family to get in the way of that main thing. Couple this together with the fact that His Father’s business was dealing with the law of God in the house of God. Our Lord put the doctrine of the word of God ahead of pacifying the feelings of family members.

There are many today that think the main thing is being concerned about people’s feelings. For our Lord, the main thing, the Father’s business, is the doctrine of God. If we would follow the example of our Lord, we would never let pacifying the feelings of people come ahead of the Father’s business. There is certainly a lesson in this for pastors who spend more time stroking people’s feelings than engaging in dialogue and study of the doctrine of God.

So the challenge for today is to identify the main thing, the Father’s business for you. And let the main thing be keeping that main thing the main thing. Believe me, it’s a challenge!

Taken, Healed, and Let Go

For my daily Bible reading I am going through the gospel of Luke. Today I read chapter 14, which opens with an account of our Lord healing a certain man, “which had the dropsy.” The dreadful disease of dropsy is characterized by the abnormal collection of fluids in the cavities or tissues of the body. This results in unsightly swelling and no doubt in great discomfort.

In other accounts of the healing miracles of Christ, we read of the sick coming to Him or calling out to Him themselves for healing. Or we read of others asking Christ to heal their sick. But in this incident there is no account that either the man with the dropsy or anyone else asked Christ to heal him. Rather, our Lord took the initiative and healed the man without being asked to do so. Here is the account of the healing:

Luke 14:4 And he took him, and healed him, and let him go.

Let us analyze each verb phrase in this passage. First consider the phrase “and he took him.” All of the miracles of Christ were miracles of salvation. In this case, the man was saved from dropsy. We can learn a great deal about the salvation of God by studying the miracles of Christ. Observe that this salvation occurred when the Lord “took him.” Salvation is more a matter of the Lord taking us to save us than of our taking the Lord as our Saviour.

Then consider the phrase “and healed him.” Whenever we are healed, whether it be by a miraculous intervention, as was the case here, or whether it be by means of nutrition, medicine, surgery, or rest, the Lord is the One Who heals us.

Exodus 15:26  …I am the LORD that healeth thee.

No means of healing sickness can be effective apart from the blessing of God. Although Hezekiah was recovered from his life-threatening sickness by means of a plaister of figs, Hezekiah praised the Lord for the healing (Isaiah 38:15-21). And this not only applies to the healing of the body. It also applies to the healing of the heart and soul.

Psalms 147:3  He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

Psalms 41:4  I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

This brings us to the phrase “and let him go.” After the Lord took this man and healed him, He let him go. And that is what the Lord does when He heals you. He lets you go. Now the question is: Being let go by the Lord, where and how will you go? Has the Lord healed you from a sickness and restored your strength? Has your heart been broken by grief or loss, and has the Lord healed you by His comforting word? Has your soul been burdened with guilt over sin, and has the Lord healed you through His pardoning mercy and restoring grace? Has your heart been poisoned by anger and bitterness? Has the Lord enabled you to give up that anger and find instead the healing that comes through forgiveness, reconciliation, and acceptance of things you cannot change? Now that you are healed and let go, where and how will you go? Will you go back to sin and foolishness? Or will you go forward following Him? May it be your happy lot to do as blind Bartimæus did when the Lord Jesus healed him and let him go.

Mark 10:52  And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

I close with these sobering words addressed to those whom the Lord has saved and let go:

Psalms 85:7  Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.
8  I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.