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Your Morning Coffee 07/12/2023

Writer's picture: Colby AndersonColby Anderson

Good morning!


Welcome to your morning coffee! May we praise and thank our Heavenly Father for the way that He brings the comfort of His peace in the midst of our suffering. Father, thank you for being so mindful of us and our needs. Our sin-broken hearts ache with the pain of living amongst other sin-broken hearts in a sin-broken world. Give us the comfort of your presence, Father. By the Spirit welcome us into your presence and keep us there. Call out to us to cling to you, no matter what. And remind us that as we grasp on to you, it is you that keep us near, your grip the grip that matters. Father, in the name of your Son Jesus, by the Spirit, He who is making us more like Him, may your will be done in us, to us, and through us. Amen.


Your Morning Song: "There Was Jesus" by Zach Williams (ft. Dolly Parton)


Your Morning Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4


Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

...


I am considered old by some, and young by others. Some things seem ancient to me, having existed in my life forever. Like the sound of my father's laugh, and my mother's smile. But there are other things that are quite new to me, seeming to have appeared just a moment ago.


Death.


Suffering.


Tragedy.


Bone-deep disappointment that dissolves into bitterness.


Early my adult years I began to notice these signs of the true brokenness of the world around us, our hearts within us. Old friends dying in accidents. A cousin diagnosed with cancer. Divorce. Permanent injury. Abuse.


For a time I did not understand what I was seeing, what I was hearing, the truth of what was happening to myself, my family, my friends. But now I have seen the true nature of our hearts and of our world.


Broken, broken, broken.


I have wept until my nose bled into my throat, my voice hoarse and tears gone. I have whispered, "God help me," into the carpet until I fell asleep. I have felt the edge of hopelessness against the soles of my feet as I lived on the edge of that awful place.


And what does God say about all this? What does He have to say to the loss of a child? To the loss of a job? To the loss of dignity? To the loss of family and of friend? To the loss of peace, and hope?


May we read these verses again, mindful now of the hurt-filled space into which they, by the Spirit, have been spoken...


"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."


God does not give us answers or feelings or fixes to our brokenness, our grief, and our pain. He gives us Himself. He gives us His Son. He sends to live in us, He, the Spirit.


God's answer to the horrific suffering of living a world broken by our sin, is first salvation, and then comfort. How great is my pain! How much greater is the tender loving-kindness of my Heavenly Father!


Do we remember Him in the depths of our pain and grief? Do we cling to our Father in Heaven? To pray desperately in the name of His Son? Do we rest in the Spirit who dwells with us?


Or do we deny that God's compassion is greater than our hurt?


May we take these things from these verses. Praise our Heavenly Father for His compassionate comfort. And then accept His comfort, cling to it as our hearts break and shatter. And then, as we ourselves are comforted by our Heavenly Father in all troubles, comfort others as they too are troubled.


May we be God's Children known

both as Comforted and Comforting.



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