God of all comfort

How do you find comfort? Like a small child with its security blanket, most of us have some activity or some thing that brings us comfort. We’re all familiar with the term “comfort food,” meaning the type of food we eat to make ourselves feel better. Some people find comfort in hot baths, good books, naps, or the company of good friends.

Sooner or later we all need comfort to get through this life.

Experts say the holidays, supposedly a time of celebrating and rejoicing, actually cause many people to experience higher levels of stress and depression. It’s a time we might need to step up our comfort-seeking levels.

This is meant to be a joyful season, but if joy seems to elude you as you go about singing your Christmas carols, consider the line from “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” – “O tidings of comfort and joy.”

Comfort and joy are intertwined. If you are in need of comfort, you aren’t experiencing joy.

Sometimes all the hot baths, long novels, soft blankets and crunchy nachos in the world won’t make you feel any better.

Second Corinthians 1:3 tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” This is such good news to those in need of His comfort. I think sometimes we forget that He knows, He understands, and He cares about our pain. He is ever ready to minister His peace to us, but we must be ready to receive from Him.

If you’re feeling far from joyful this Christmas season, talk to your Heavenly Father about that. Ask Him to bring you His comfort, to fill you with His peace, and to restore your joy. In faith, receive from Him that which He has promised. Stay close to Him, and all the mayhem around you or any sorrow you may be carrying cannot supersede His comfort.

God rest ye, merry gentlemen – and women!