I have found the Bible to be a great source of comfort and encouragement, not only in times of difficulty, but also throughout my days as passages from the Word bring refreshment to my soul.
Isaiah tells us that when we go through deep waters God will be there. So. deep waters are a given. They come to all of us. When they come, God is there too. That word is a comfort. One such time comes to my mind.
My mother passed away in her 66th year. At that time my husband was pastoring a church and I was at home with a 4 year old, one to be 2 in a month, and a baby to be 1 in a month.
It was a Sunday morning and I was in the bathroom getting ready when my husband came in wearing his grey suit and relayed to me the call he had just received. I began to function, doing those routine things that come as habit. People came to help: with the kids, transportation and comfort. This congregation had been my mother’s at one time and they had loved her. Following service they showered me with hugs and kind words.
We went through the rituals; the funeral, the people, the memories, trying to get a new and different grip on life – one without mom.
In one of my quiet moments with God, reading through Isaiah, I came to chapter 49. Israel must have been feeling that God had forsaken them for Isaiah brings to their minds the idea of a nursing mother…can she forget her nursing child, or the son of her womb?
In the natural it is a very sad and strange thing should it happen. Then he says:
“I will not forget you, see I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands, I will not forget you.”
From God’s lips to my soul, written centuries before Jesus’ birth, the Great I am spoke to me, His child, a powerful and comforting realization. A picture of the cross, of pain and torture, beyond the natural love of a mother, a love eternal, and very personal: my name, inscribed, engraved on His human flesh. He loved me, He would not forget me. He was in that place, that moment with me.
Today, decades later, I must say that in all my days since, in great joys or deep disappointments, in rutted routines, He is with me. The Living Word lives within me. As I turn to the Bible and read the precious text, His spirit applies it to my heart giving me courage, or direction, whatever I need to hear.
That same comfort and companionship is available to all. My prayer would be that you too find comfort in this loving Saviour through His word given to us in the Bible. Opening the cover, and reading its words provides a good place to start.
