I was minding myself at work yesterday when God sent me an African-American prophetess to speak into my life about God's heart (and our frustrations with this dry land resistant to sanctification and reconciliation). Most challenging for the both of us is covering our beautiful pearls when "believers" would trounce them as pigs. My heart cries for a ripe audience.
Anyway, I told her that this place was killing me; she promptly interjected, "Not killing you -- killing your flesh." Truth. What makes this season so torturous are not those around me, but the lack of comfort they provide, even in areas where they previously sufficed. Spirit only consoles spirit. Even where God would have my physical and relational needs met, He would have them met through divine people and circumstances. Whatever I seek for my own good will consistently fall short of what He graces for my perseverance.
Lord, sustain me in this death, and bring my spirit greater life!
2 comments:
"Spirit only consoles spirit." I never thought about it that way. No wonder I struggle in so many situations with people. If they are not of the spirit, how can they care for my spirit? And if I am of the spirit, how can I bless theirs if they do not receive of the spirit?
I pray you would learn greater reliance on God's Spirit as you struggle with the absence of care from others.
On a related note, I wasn't even looking for it, but read this today:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Cor. 1:3-5)
I must have blown through that passage hundreds of times before it jumped off the page today, but it seems that comfort (like love) can best be offered in a pseudo-manner without first receiving it from Christ. It isn't that we cannot bring comfort the lost, but it cannot be done outside of Christ... certainly not in any truth. Our message of grace and comfort in Him is what will ultimately meet the needs of others.
And likewise, it seems that those without Christ cannot legitimately bring comfort to us. With the number of unbelieving friends I've had in my life, it's a good reminder not to hold an unrealistic expectation that they would be a comfort to me.
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