Thirst

II Corinthians 1:3 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. It is a good thing that our Lord is the God of all comfort. You see we were made to feel "right", loved, and at peace. This is comfort; to feel at rest, loved and 'at home' so to speak in our life and situations. When we lose this state of comfort, closely tied to our feelings, we move into dis-satisfaction and eventually into hopelessness or disallusionment. In this place we have begun to desire wrongly, or lust for things to fill the void that was created to feel loved. Or we have shut down our pssions for a more 'secure place' in shrinking back, away from the call of Jesus. This is because we have left the comfort of God and we are unable to go on with the call of Christ on our lives. Jesus and our Father are the God of love, and the God of all comfort. This comfort is not to be taken lightly but is the driving and sustaining force of the Christian to walk with Christ through all situations. The comfort of God keeps us steadfast and fully assured that we are in Christ as well as open to continue receiving from Christ, whether in his suffering or his glory. Both the sufferings and glory of Christ can be scarey, but this is why we must remain in his comfort, or we will shrink back from him and disobey due to our lack of faith. All these things are so intertwined (it is his esscence that he is one. We cannot seperate sound doctrine from the experince of it anymore than we can seperate faith from its outworking in our hearts and lives). If we lose comfort we lose faith to go on (its seems to burdensome or to scarey, or not worth the cost we must pay), if we lose love we lose comfort, if we lose peace, we lose comfort, if we lose any portion of Christ we lose comfort. We must remain in him and in his comfort, by his Spirit. His Spirit is the medium of this comfort. You see his Spirit is an esscence. It is a substance, a spiritual one, but just as real as the chair you sit on. When this substance of his very presence fills you, you are filled with the esscence of life and you are able to continue to walk in faith. We must take daily from the divine Godhead and let him fill every crevase and crack with the his Glory. This divine filling is the essence of his comfort in our lives and hearts. We were made for him, to be loved by him, to be the dwelling place, the tabernacle of God. This is life and peace in the Spirit. To lose peace is to begin to "process" and live life outside of him. This is foolishness, for the mind of Christ is his Spirit (see I Corinthians 2:14-15), and we can be sure that our reasoning done aside from remaining in him, no matter how 'sound' it seems, is quite off key - and will leave us with a feeling of dissonacne in our souls. We must make every effort then to be found in him. Then we can begin to process life and its problems. To think aside from the Spirit of Christ and be obedient to the word of God is not only foolish, but sets ourselves up as wiser than God. (This is not smart, in case you need that help). This is to lose God himself and therefore also the comfort of God in our lives. Jesus said that if we obey his commands we would remain in his love (John 14). Remaining in his love keeps us feeling comforted no matter what our trial or glory we are in. Let go of your life and let the comfort and peace of God remain in you, in your heart, in your mind, and keep you in the will of God. Comfort is the key to continuing in faithfulness with Christ. And as with all aspects of our salvation, his work in this area is previous and predominant. While it is true we can learn to comfort ourselves with the love of Christ, and surround ourselves with people of comfort, these too are merely an outworking of the previous comfort of God (in his body to you). Let us press on towards Christ, not settling for the false comfort of our peirs approval, our parents, our pastors or the false comfort of "doctrine" or of the law (which is dead religon we still can see today in our churches). These things are a shadow of the things that will be revealed. One day we will see things for how they were made, for now, refrain from unhealthy judgments and remain in the comfort of God which will allow you to keep moving forward. Remember, the law or religion, and any part of the body of Christ in isolation gives a dim shadow of reality; however, the reality is found in Christ! His Spirit will keep us true, may this truth based on his heart and character give you comfort in whatever situation you find yourself in.