(Much Needed) Comfort!

"Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem & cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness, prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'"

(Isaiah 40:1-3)

We're towards the end of a sermon series at Aiea UMC on forgiveness. Week 1 was the basics of forgiveness; week 2 - Why we forgive; week 3 - Forgiving the Hard Stuff; week 4 - Shall we Forgive & Forget?; week 5 - Forgiving Ourselves. I've been thinking a lot about week 5... and wondering how many people find themselves int hat place - having a hard time being able to forgive themselves? Whether it's one act of indiscretion or a lifetime of addictions, there are part of many people's lives that seem to hold them in perpetual guilt.

And yet as Christians, we believe that Jesus came to free us from the sins of our lives. Christ's life, death & resurrection became the key to unlocking the chains of condemnation. In fact, the apostle Paul said, "Now, therefore, there is NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus." And yet, we still find it hard to forgive ourselves.

Into this context, the words of Isaiah 40 are heard in a new light. "Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem & cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid..." We beat ourselves up over and over, but our penalty has been paid - by Jesus! God wants to tenderly bring us back into His arms and "carry (us) in his bosom" (40:11). Will we allow those "wilderness areas" of our lives to be "straightened" by God? How can we not?

PRAYER: I think, for the most part, O God, that we don't really grasp the amazing gift that is your LOVE. Forgive me for not trusting in the power of the cross more completely. Help me to be a channel of grace by which others can be set free from the their own wildernesses, as Christ comes again to them in power! AMEN.