When Do You Need Comfort From God?
Isaiah 40:1-2 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her. Her warfare really is over. Her guilt is fully paid for. Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
In Dr. Martin Luther’s Christian Questions and Answers”, he asks, “What have you deserved from God because of your sins?” The answer, “I deserved his wrath and displeasure, temporal death, and eternal damnation.” That is exactly what we deserve because we are all sinners. We daily sin much and indeed deserve nothing but punishment. We cannot stand before God and lift our proud hands and hearts, to show off our works before the Lord, saying that we are thankful that we are not like other people, murderers, adulterers, fornicators, false witnesses, blasphemers. Rather we need to come before our God and say, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’. When we come with that humble attitude, we need God’s comfort more than anything else.
Our Lord Jesus came into the world for the sick and not for the whole. He came to minister to the brokenhearted, to the prisoners, to the spiritually crippled, disabled and blind. He came into the world to bind up the spiritually crippled and disabled. Jesus came to bring forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. With Jesus there is plenteous forgiveness. That is more than enough.
Our text says Jerusalem has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. Where a sin has been committed there is forgiveness in double measure. That is why God says, “Comfort, comfort my people”. We need God’s comfort every second of our lives. In Jesus there is the comfort of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. There is double forgiveness. That is more than what we deserve. All praise and thanks be to Jesus our Savior and Lord. What comfort there is in that assurance.
Dear Father in heaven, I come before you with a humble heart and plead, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Oh what comfort there is when you assure me that my sins are all forgiven because Jesus paid for all my sins on the cross. Amen.