Devotion Booklets for Seasons of the Church Year 2016 | Page 14

Sunday—December 4th

Comfort
Isaiah 40:1-2
“I don’t like this anymore than you do.” How many parents have said this to their children
through their bedroom door, as their child furiously sits in bed? Has any child ever really
believed those words? As a child it is easy to believe that your parents get some strange
satisfaction from disciplining their child. It is assumed that they enjoy sending their children to
their rooms or taking away the Xbox. But then those children grow up. They too become
parents and stand on the other side of the bedroom door and realize something – it’s true.
Disciplining your children is often as hard on the parents as it is on the children, but still they
do it. They have to. Otherwise, their kids would never see the truth about their actions.
Israel had done some terrible things. They had ignored the way God called them to live as the
people of Israel. They had abandoned the true God for false gods. They too had to see the
evil they had done or they would be lost forever. So God allowed them to go into captivity.
He allowed them to be defeated by an enemy and be carried away from their homes. He too
didn’t like seeing them suffer, but desperately wanted them to see the danger of their actions.
God can’t hold it in forever. Like a parent who can’t wait for his child’s punishment to be over
so they can go out and play basketball together on the driveway again, God bursts forth with
one word – Comfort. He can’t tell them it’s not a big deal. It is. Their homeland would be
completely destroyed. He can’t tell them it will all be better in the morning. Their captivity
would last 70 years! But he could tell Israel that “her hard service has been completed”. It
would end. He could tell Israel that “her sin has been paid for”. All that Israel had done would
be paid for in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
And these are words that God speaks to you today. No matter what you’ve done or who
you’ve hurt or how much the consequences of your actions hurt you. Your hard service will be
completed – it will end. Your sin has been paid for – it is forgiven in Jesus. And one day in
heaven, you will receive from the Lord twice as much good as the bad you’ve done. Why?
Because he loves you more than any parent ever could.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, we know that you love us even more than our own parents. In spite of our
sin, you have forgiven us in Jesus. Whether we are struggling because of our own actions or
just because we live in a sinful world, help us to remember that you forgive us. And that the
good we have in Jesus outweighs all the bad we face in life. Amen.
ACTIVITY:

Think of a time you got into trouble. Ask your parents how they felt about it? Remind each
other of your forgiveness.

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