By Laurie Langdon
Inner comfort
The secret of contentment is found in the state of inner comfort that comes with being filled with Holy Spirit. I cannot know contentment without this. God’s Word says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.” (1 Cor. 6:19,20)
Jesus gave the following words to his disciples just before he left them to return to the Father: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:16-20)
There are also the words of Paul: “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.” (2 Cor. 1:3,4)
While the state of contentment, fed by the power of God’s comfort inside me, will be fully and completely manifested in Heaven, it is also true that I am promised the same condition here in my world. Assistance, support, consolation in times of trouble or worry, feelings of relief or encouragement, along with the sense of contented well-being – these have been promised to me here, just as it is in Heaven.
The truth is that God has given me his Holy Spirit, his “advocate to help [me] and be with [me] forever.” (John 14:16) Consequently …
• When I am accused or challenged, he is immediately close, as my legal and intimate activist, pleading my cause and delivering God’s just verdict in all matters. He is my defense, and he is impenetrable.
• When I am challenged, he is there to plead my cause, supplying the indisputable evidence that exists in the truth that “He was delivered over to death for [my] sins and was raised to life for [my] justification.” (Rom. 4:25)
• When I feel low, he is there to exhort, admonish and encourage me to stand strong, to stand true and to stand victorious.
• When I feel afraid, he consoles and calms, and when I feel helpless, he steps up in my defense, because “he always lives to intercede for [me].” (Heb. 7:25b)
• When I go astray, he is there to signal and empower me to fulfill the duties I need to fulfill with the gentle and earnest alarm, “Watch your step!”
• When I feel helpless, he is there to drive every menace away and to sustain me in the face of all hostility, proving himself real in every situation and working against every attack.
• When I am discouraged, he is there to awaken me to his ability to rule my circumstances and to give me the fresh faith I need to believe that he will act in a right way and do the right thing.
Take a moment to ponder this.
We will continue this conversation in my next article.
