John 14
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
As ever my take on God, is colored by what he is doing at this moment in my life, and at this moment…He is comforting me. We all face times of stress and trial, and times of plenty and times of ease, we call them the hills and valleys of life. But life in Christ Jesus should be something different…we should not be tossed around by the storms of life, nor lulled into complacency when the sea is calm,. Rather we should sale an even course, drive a steady road. I picture God as a road builder, plowing throw the mountains and filling in the valleys to give us that even road.
Living close to some very big mountains I see the ways the roads are built so that I can zoom through them slightly above the speed limit, and I think back to the people who had no roads, and how the going was much tougher. If we go “off road” the way can be tough for us as well.
But God is always there back at the road we left waiting for us to rejoin, sometimes He’ll build a special road just for us, to bring us back on course. because He loves us.
Having a revelation of that love of Jesus…..makes the storms seem less violent and the lulls less dull. walking in the path Jesus laid before us, even if there doesn’t seem to be a way through, is one way God comforts us.
Hebrews 13: 5 For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
And he will not, in the good times and the bad, He is our constant companion, our comfort…our peace.
I carry a little token around with me on my key chain, and it is mostly ignored in day to day life, but I read it this week and it was another word in good time for me.
Philippians 4: 11… for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Life will not always be pleasant, one day will be a picnic, and one day will be rain……but I am beginning to learn, to be content in whatever state I am in….for I can do ALL things through Christ, who strengthens me.
